58 Forty Years' Experience of a Practical Hog Man. 



meal, which can be fed either dry or soaked and fed as a 

 slop. 



With this ration a feed of the third cutting of alfalfa 

 hay, which is always bright and green, would be an excellent 

 addition, giving both bulk and green feed for the sows. 



A mixture of one part shelled corn, one part oats, and 

 two parts finely cut alfalfa hay put through a cutting box, 

 makes a nicely balanced ration, with the addition of five 

 per cent tankage, or where skim milk is plentiful, use it in- 

 stead of tankage, in the proportion of three pounds of skim 

 milk to one of grain. 



Another good ration is equal parts of rye and barley 

 ground fine and mixed with twenty-five per cent white mid- 

 dlings or shorts — on account of price of middlings, although 

 middlings are very good — adding about five per cent oil 

 meal or tankage. This makes almost an ideal ration. 



A small per cent in weight of a good quality bran added 

 to any of the above makes a valuable addition. 



One thing must not be overlooked, and that is plenty of 

 clean fresh water. If it can be had at will, so much the 

 better ; if it cannot, it should at least be given once or twice 

 daily, for the hog needs a drink of water as much as any 

 other animal or human being. I have known pigs to walk 

 directly from a wet feed of nice rich slop to a drinking foun- 

 tain and take a good drink of water, as though they had been 

 fed on dry feed. . I really think that the majority of breeders 

 and farmers overlook this matter of letting the hogs have 

 plenty of water to drink. 



Further, the brood sows during the season should, if pos- 

 sible, have some kind of green feed or pasture. Of course 

 in parts of the country where there is heavy snow, some- 

 thing must be fed to take the place of pasture. There is 

 nothing equal to the third or fourth cutting of alfalfa for 

 this purpose. This, if cured without being damaged by 

 rains, is practically as green as it would be in June, and is 

 greatly relished. It can be fed in racks, properly. made, 

 and mentioned elsewhere in this book, or it may be run 

 through a power cutter and chaffed and fed with a portion 

 of the grain ration, as above recommended. A mixture of 

 salt, charcoal, wood ashes and ground limestone or slacked 

 lime is absolutely necessary, and if convenient add also a 

 portion of ground phosphate rock. This mixture adds much 



