COMMON PRACTICE OF FEEDING 137 



palatable feed the pig in such cases harvests the crop 

 which saves considerable expense. He also usually gets 

 a greater variety of feed as well as different mineral 

 substances that may be gathered from the soil in different 

 places. While the feed gathered from the pasture in the 

 form of grass, plants of various kinds, etc., is of the na- 

 ture of a roughage, still the pig can use a considerable 

 quantity of this even though he is primarily adapted to 

 concentrated feeds. In fact, he will do better with some 

 roughages in his ration than he will to be confined en- 

 tirely to concentrates, especially if the former are gath- 

 ered from the pasture. The pasture exercises a consid- 

 erable influence besides the feeds it supplies. 



SUMMER FEEDING. 



Pigs, ordinarily, undej- the common practice of feeding, 

 are farrowed in the spring. They are then developed dur- 

 ing the summer season, and sold the following fall or win- 

 ter, or else carried over and sold the next season. It has 

 been found by experience that a growing pig can be de- 

 veloped well during the summer season, but that feeding 

 a young pig during the winter season is only rarely suc- 

 cessful. A hog may be fattened to very good advantage 

 during the winter. 



WINTER FEEDING. 



The reason that winter feeding is not as successful as 

 summer feeding is indicated at least in part by the recent 

 experimental data of the writer. This is especially 

 true in the corn belt of the United States where 

 corn, a carbonaceous concentrate, is the principal feed. 

 This may be used in summer feeding, to fairly good ad- 

 vantage. The pig under such conditions will get the nee- 



