Jo. 



151.] ' 361 



England, vol. IL, psge 416. An experiment was also published hf 

 a farmer, who stated that he took two pigs of the same litter and of 

 similar weight, and fed them apart, one upon barley meal mixed 

 with swill or wash, and the other with dry meal, having his drink 

 given him an hour afterwards. At the end of six weeks, both v/ere 

 weighed, and the hog fed upon dry food, was found to be one stone^ 

 14 pounds heavier than the other. 



" Regarding steamed food^ it having been very generally assumed 

 in England that steamed roots, potatoes especially, were preferable to 

 raw in the feeding of neat cattle and swine, the Highland Society, 

 in 1833, offered premiums for trials on the subject, several of which 

 were made, from which it would appear, that any advantage which 

 might be gained by such preparation of food for oxen and hogs, was 

 counterbalanced by the cost of fuel and labor. It is generally sup- 

 posed that hogs are particularly inclined to filth: such is not the factj 

 they are, on the contrarj', exceedingly neat, and will invariably ap- 

 propriate a portion of their pen for excrementitious matter; the ob- 

 ject he has in rolling in mud, is to rid himself of flies, and cool his 

 skin 5 no animal appears more to enjoy a dry straw bed than the 

 hog; cleanse his pen often, and after feeding, always remove the re^' 

 mains of food; do not permit him to gorge himself, if you do, indi- 

 gestion will be the consequence; a hog fed at regular intervals will 

 rarely meet with this annoyance. Cutaneous disorders sometimes at- 

 tack him, ending in scabs, Vvhich is generally brought on when the 

 animal is confined in a close place without air, or fed on improper 

 food; when this disease makes its appearance, give the animal from 

 half to one and a half ounces of sulphur and nitre mixed." 



I have on my farm, an orchard of choice grafted trees, bearing 

 sweet apples, planted expressly for hogs; this is the principal food 

 on which I feed them during the latter part of the summer and fall, 

 sometimes sour apples are given them by way of variety, and occa- 

 sionally the refuse of the garden; those intended for the butcher, 

 have in addition, slops from the kitchen, and after the cider is made, 

 they receive as much pomace as they can eat three times each day, at 

 regular intervals; as for corn, they rarely get sight of it, except oc-* 

 casionally for the last two weeks of their lives, they are fed upon 

 corn meal made from the cob and kernel which are ground together 

 and allowed to ferment and become acid before it is given them. 

 This was not my former practice, but I have an idea that corn meal 

 has a tendency to harden the fat and render it less oily. To feed 

 hogs on corn as usually practiced by our farmers, without taking the 



