348 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug.. 



For the Kete England Farmer. 

 KETROSPECTIVE NOTES. 



Fat Sows for Breeders. — This is the caption 

 of an article in the June number of the Farmer, 

 page 250, which will bring to the acquaintance of 

 some of its readers a few of the somewhat pecu- 

 liar methods of management in the raising and 

 fattening of hogs, which have been adopted by 

 one who has had very uncommon success, and 

 who enjoys a very hi;^h reputation in this depart- 

 ment of farming. This individual, who raises 

 the cheapest pork and the heaviest pigs of any 

 man "in all the country round," is John Skaats, 

 of Alexander, Genesee county, New York. As 

 only a few of the peculiarities of this very success- 

 ful hog-breeder and pork-maker are mentioned in 

 the article referred to, (see June number of the 

 N. E. Farmer, page 2.30,) and as almost all the 

 items in his mode of management are well worthy 

 of consideration, and of imitation to a greater or 

 less extent, it has seemed to me quite probable 

 that several of the readers of this paper might de- 

 rive some useful hints from a more detailed state- 

 ment of the prominent characteristics of Mr. 

 Skaats' method of raising and fattening hogs. 

 My information is derived partly from private 

 sources, but mainly from sundry communications 

 in regard to Mr. S.'s somewhat peculiar modes of 

 management in the Oenesee Farmer and the Cul- 

 tivator, (Albany.) 



A Model Pork-Maker's Mode of Manage- 

 ment. — First of all, Mr. S. never uses any sows 

 for breeding, under a year and a half old, nor 

 boars until they are of the same age, or, at least, 

 over one year old. He continues to use the sows 

 up to five or six years of age, and thinks they 

 continue to improve as breeders up to that age. 

 In this respect, his example is certainly worthy 

 of imitation, and every man of common sense, 

 even without the corrobating testimony of expe- 

 rience, must readily believe that pigs from sows 

 and sires who have attained their maturity, must 

 inherit far more healthy and vigorous constitu- 

 tions than the progeny of parents which have not 

 as yet attained their full growth or maturity. In- 

 deed, breeding for three or four generations from 

 sows or boars under one year of age, cannot fail 

 to produce a deterioration of the progeny, or 

 breed. 



I cannot regard the next peculiarity in Mr. S.'s 

 management with equal favor. I refer to his 

 keeping his breeding sows pork-fat. Experience 

 has taught me, and probably many others, that 

 when cows are in quite high condition at the pe- 

 riod of parturition, they are much more liable to 

 attacks of milk or puerperal fever, and to other 

 forms of inflammatory and febrile disease, than 

 when in a less plethoric condition. This very 

 spring I have lost one fine and favorite cow, a few 

 days after calving, and undoubtedly from this 

 cause. Sows, I am aware, are not so liable to fe- 

 vers and similar complaints at the period of par- 

 turition, as cows are ; but still I cannot rid my- 

 self of the idea that even a sow will pass through 

 that process and its concomitants and consequen- 

 ces with far more safety, if only in fair or moder- 

 ate condition, than if in such high condition as 

 to be called pork-fat. In confirmation of this 

 idea, I recollect of having met with a coramunica- 

 tioa in the Maine Farmer of last year, in which a 



correspondent, who had had thirty years' success- 

 ful experience in raising pigs, directs that for two 

 days after bringing forth her young, a sow should 

 have no food, except a little thin, warm gruel, so 

 as not to exceed half a pint a day of meal. "This 

 is very essential," says this breeder of thirty 

 years' experience, "as it helps the flow of milk, 

 and prevents fever." This shows that, though 

 there may be less danger from full feeding and a 

 high condition in sows than in cows, at and af- 

 ter the period of parturition, there is, neverthe- 

 less, danger to a certain extent. In Dr. Dadd'a 

 American Cattle Doctor, I find, al^, a sentence 

 which implies that sows, while with pig, should 

 not be fed to the full, or so abundantly or richly 

 as to make them pork-fat. The sentence referred 

 to, directs that "sows with pigs should be kept 

 with the litters in separate sties, and be still bet- 

 ter fed than those with pig." With these remarks 

 by way of caution against carrying a very good 

 practice to an extreme, I leave the reader to judge 

 and choose for himself between Mr. S.'s practice 

 of keeping his breeding sow pork-fat, and what 

 seems to me the safer, and every way better prac- 

 tice of keeping her in only fair, or moderate con- 

 dition until after parturition. While her litter is 

 nursing, it is safe, and without danger to health, 

 to give the sow all the food she will eat up clean. 

 I cannot, however, allow myself to dismiss this 

 subject, without remarking that, though there 

 may be one here and there who may go to an ex- 

 treme in keeping his breeding sow too fat, there 

 are scores for every such one who do not keep 

 their breeding sows in as good condition as would 

 be for her comfort and for their own profit. 



Another peculiarity of this model hog-breeder 

 and pork-maker, Mr. Sk-\ats, is this — he never 

 feeds the pigs with the sow. He begins to feed 

 them new milk, and then milk diluted with slops, 

 just as soon as they will eat, which they will usu- 

 ally do at two or three weeks old, and in order 

 that the sow may not steal it away from them, nor 

 disturb them, he gives the pigs an apartment for 

 themselves, with small openings to go in and out 

 at their pleasure. 



Another peculiarity of Mr. S.'s mode of raising 

 and fattening hogs, consists in never allowing 

 them to get so Hungry as to squeal. When young, 

 after weaning them, he feeds them six times a 

 day, and at no after period of their growth, does 

 he feed them less than four times a day, and he is 

 very particular about having them fed at regular 

 periods, punctually, and exactly at the hour. 

 Then, again, he either cooks all their food, or lets 

 it sour a little in the swill-barrel, if fed out with- 

 out cooking. As an instance of the better relish 

 given to raw food when it has lain forty-eight 

 hours or so in the swill-barrel, it is stated that 

 hogs will eat with apparent good relish, sour ap- 

 ples that have been thus treated, when they would 

 not touch a fresh one. 



Another of the peculiarities of Mr. S.'s mode 

 of fattening his hogs is this — ^he uses very little 

 corn, and sometimes none at all. In this respect, 

 his example seems worthy of consideration, and 

 perhaps of imitation, for, as must have occurred 

 to the observation and reflections of farmers of 

 good judgment, there are a good many who de- 

 pend too exclusively on corn ; who feed corn for 

 weeks and even months at a stretch, causing dys- 

 pepsia, souraess of Btomacb, discomfort, and dis* 



