378 
ILLUSTRATED STOCK DOCTOR. 
Summary. 
In what we have said in relation to feeding in close pens, we are not to 
be understood as advising the practice on the farm. There should 
be plenty of pasture in Summer, and plenty of pure water always. With- 
out this no one can succeed. There must be protection from insects 
and heat in Summer. The first may be perfectly secured by providing a 
dark place to which the hogs can retire at will. In Winter there must 
be warm, dry and otherwise comfortable shelter provided, and there must 
also bo plenty of good food, at all times. Of all animals the hog, at 
least, must not be allowed to lose flesh from the time it is born until it i3 
killed. When fat, kill at once, unless the market happens so that it will 
pay to hold for a short time for a turn. As a hog becomes fat, it eats 
“ ARKANSAS TOOTH-PICKS." 
less and less, and it also fattens more and more slowly. Nevertheless, 
the same daily animal waste goes on. Many good feeders are so partic- 
ular that they weigh their hogs every two weeks, and note the gain. 
Then they are able to determine just how much their stock is improving, 
and also as to the proper time for turning them off. If not ready, or tho 
season and prices are not right, they increase the condition of tho food 
given, so that the small quantity taken shall make up in richness what it 
lacks in quantity. This class seldom sell stock over twelve months old, 
and many of our best feeders sell their hogs at ten months old, which 
will turn the scales at from three hundred to four hundred pounds each. 
Such feeders never keep hogs two Summers and one Winter, in order t® 
get an average of two hundred pounds each. 
