1884.] 
AMERIOAIT AGEIOULTUEIST. 
495 
Feeding and Care of Farm Animals. 
PRIZE ARTICLE—BT “ A WESTERN PARMER.” 
Swine. 
The farmer who lives a long distance from mar¬ 
ket, or who has the range of a large wood lot, 
should select one of the larger breeds of swine. 
The villager who grows his own pork will find the 
small breeds best suited to his purpose. Berk¬ 
shire, Poland-China, Essex, Duroc-Jersey, York¬ 
shire, Suffolk, and other breeds and crosses all 
have good points. From them any person can 
select the kind best adapted to his wants. The 
boar should be a thorough-bred, paying especial 
regard to its length and depth of body, vigor, 
health, and strength. The ears indieate fineness, 
alertness, and vivacity ; the eye and mouth intel¬ 
ligence and tractability. Give him room for exer¬ 
cise, good w.ater. and let his food be varied. The 
sow should be of good shape, strong, healthy, per¬ 
fectly docile and well grown. Very young sows 
deteriorate the stock ; full grown sows improve it. 
While growing, vary her food, give her all the 
grass range possible, to develop body and strength. 
After being bred to the boar it is best to keep her 
separate from shoats and fat hogs. Her food 
should be bulky rather than strong—to satisfy but 
not to fatten. Slops, bran, oats, roots, and well 
cured clover hay—cut in blossom, chopped and 
steamed, or wetted and primed with oat-meal or 
corn-meal is an excellent bulky food mixture for 
a sow. Provide plenty of pure water with dry shed 
and abundance of bedding. Pet and handle her as 
much as possible. The average period of gestation 
is one hundred and fifteen days. Ten or twelve 
days before farrowing, place the sow in a warm, 
dry pen, about eight by ten feet square, and give 
but a few handfuls of short straw and forest leaves 
for a bed. This is an important point. With a 
/arge quantity of bedding she will construct a deep 
nest, and in it more than likely, crush her young 
pigs to death. With a small quantity she will make 
a flat nest, and unless foolishly vexed or disturbed, 
will rarely injure the pigs. Years ago I tried the 
much lauded plan of fastening a rail around the 
inside of the pen eight or nine inches above the 
floor and out from the sides, and giving more 
bedding. The experiment cost me about fifty dol¬ 
lars worth of pigs crushed and chilled to death. 
For a month before farrowing, feed little or no 
grain. Potatoes, chopped mangels, apples, and 
other cooling, succulent food, should be fed for 
the purpose of keeping the blood cool and relaxing 
the system. A sow thus fed will be quiet, and 
seldom show a disposition to devour her pigs. 
After farrowing she will eat very little for a day or 
so. A thin, sloppy mush of skim milk and oat, 
barley, or corn-meal, and bran is best for her. 
Gradually increase the solid foods to all she can 
eat, make her slops nourishing and provide it in 
plenty. When the pigs are able to look out for 
themselves, clean out the pen and supply an abund¬ 
ance of short straw and forest leaves for bedding. 
Open small doors and let the pigs run out to exer¬ 
cise in the sunshine. If there is a poor runt in the 
litter destroy it. It might make a hog in time, but 
it rarely pays to keep it. When pigs are about four 
weeks old, open the doors and let them into a yard. 
Feed all together, but let each sow and litter retain 
its own pen for a sleeping apartment. Induce the 
pigs to eat as early as possible by placing a trough 
where only they can get to it. Feed them twice a 
day with thin slops of corn-meal, pea-meal, or 
wheat middlings and skim milk, or kitchen slops. 
When the clover will furnish a bite, let the sow and 
pigs into pasture. Continue to supply all the slops 
and meal, or soaked corn, they will eat, and also 
plenty of water. Make a deep trough, fasten a 
cover on it with hinges, and through one end cut a 
snout hole. Bank the earth against it even with 
the top, and keep it full of water. Scrub it out 
once a week. While suckling the pigs the sow is 
to be regarded simply as a machine for the pro¬ 
duction of pork; hence it is advisable to let the 
pigs run with her until she makes strenuous eflforts 
to wean them, then she should be removed. 
While the pigs are being weaned, castrate and 
ring them. Use a smooth ring with points meeting 
outside of the flesh. Place it firmly in the end of 
the snout, just full, so it will remain but not pinch. 
As hoi weather comes on, provide a dark shed 
with a dry plank floor, and in it feed green sweet 
corn. The pigs will rest in it, and eat corn through 
the heat of the day, and feed on the clover at 
night. Sweet corn is capital feed for growing pigs, 
and should be used from the time it begins to ear 
until frost. The early acd late varieties will fur¬ 
nish a succession. As cool weather approaches, 
gradually increase the supply of solid, strong food, 
and finally shut off the clover. 
Experiments have proved that corn is not the 
best food for the production of pork when fed 
alone, but it is employed more extensively than all 
other grains, roots, and vegetables together. If 
used as a chief article in combination with other 
foods it is unequalled by any other cereal or vege¬ 
table that can be successfully grown over as great 
a range of country. Peas, barley, oats, mangels, 
potatoes and artichokes are undoubtedly valuable 
to a certain extent, but they can never supersede 
corn for reasons obvious to every intelligent far¬ 
mer. We shell corn and soak it in water twenty- 
four hours to soften it, because some hogs with 
defective teeth, cannot thoroughly masticate it 
when hard, and consequently waste a great deal. 
Soaked corn contains all the fattening qualities of 
cooked corn, and is as digestible. Soaking costs 
nothing ; cooking is expensive. For soaking corn 
it is best to use two tanks or tubs. When a cheap 
power can be obtained it would probably pay to 
coarsely grind or crack the corn ; twelve hours 
would then be sufficient for soaking. For variety, 
and to keep the hogs in healthy, thrifty condition, 
feed potatoes, mangels, peas, artichokes, oat-meal, 
and bran or middlings mixed to a mush with skim 
milk or slops ; even if only in small quantities they 
will prove very beneficial. Aim to feed hogs for 
market profitably. Intelligent observation and ex¬ 
periment will show how it can be done. Remember 
that warm, dry, well-bedded sheds are absolutely 
essential to profitable feeding. 
Keep your eye on the market and get all the in¬ 
formation you can concerning the supply of hogs 
and pork. Take advantage of a rise and sell. Fine, 
smooth, even lots of hogs are always in demand, 
and are certain to bring the top price. Farmers 
living over a mile from market will find it much the 
best plan to erect a chute, loading their ^ogs into 
wagons and hauling them. In case they are driven, 
some of their bedding sii-^uld be taken along in a 
wagon for use on biidges. Hogs will readily walk 
over a bridge on their old bi dding. After passing 
over one bridge the bedding < an be raked up, loaded 
into the wagon, and used ( n the next, and so on. 
Sows should be bred for ^wo years, and then fat¬ 
tened and sold. Begin feeding grain about Sep¬ 
tember 1st, while on grass, in full flesh and thrifty 
condition. About four weeks before they are to 
be marketed, the pigs should be confined in a small, 
warm, dry, and well-bedded pen, and fed heavily 
with soaked corn, or meals mixed with skim milk, 
slops, etc., and an occasional ration of artichokes 
or other vegetables. Under such treatment the 
sows will fatten vei'y rapidly, and prove profitable. 
Provided with wholesome food, pure water, and 
clean, dry, well-littered shed, a hog will never be¬ 
come diseased unless previously infected, and that 
the farmer must carefully guard against when pro¬ 
curing his change of stock. A healthy hog requires 
no stimulants, preventives or tonics of any kind. 
A diseased hog should be completely isolated from 
all others, or killed and burned. Lice are indica¬ 
tions of ill-condition or unclean quarters. Kerosene 
applied with a swab will destroy the vermin. 
The best time to have pigs farrowed is an open 
question. With plenty of shed room, warm pens 
and yards, it is much the best plan to have them 
early in March. Without these conveniences, the 
middle or latter part of April would be better. 
Much also depends upon locality. North of thirty- 
nine degrees there is often considerable very severe 
weather in March, and the early part of April, while 
south 6f that latitude there is but little. Each 
farmer must take all these facts into consideration. 
and decide the question for himself. When a boar’s- 
tusks become too long, saw them oil before he in¬ 
jures valuable stock. In ringing an old sow, place 
one ring in the end of the snout, and one between 
the nostrils, the same as a bull ring. Many promi¬ 
nent feeders hold that all kinds of food should be 
slightly fermented, as it is more easily digested, 
and leaves the stomach in better condition. This 
has been our experience also, but we have learned 
that some care and skill is required in this mode of 
preparing food. If it passes the first degree of 
fermentation and becomes a little too sourit is very 
injurious. We prefer to feed unfermented food if 
there is the least danger that it may, from neglect 
or inexperience, become too sour. Artichokes are 
useful for breeding sows in the late fall and early 
spring. They should be planted in a dry,'loamy 
soil, so that they may be readily dug when wanted. 
Fastening tlje Wires of a Trellis. 
The tightener is made of a stout piece of well- 
seasoned oak or cedar, and has a slot sawed for 
about eighteen inches from the bottom, through 
which the wire is passed. To prevent splitting, a 
ferrule is placed on just at the top of the slot. The 
wire is loosely secured with staples to both the 
main post a, and the straining post 6, and is passed 
through the slot in the tightener. A firm grip up¬ 
on the wire is taken with a pair of stout pincers, as 
A WIRE TIGHTENER. 
close to the tightener as possible. The upper end 
of the tightener is pulled down until the wire is 
taut, when the staple in the straining post is 
driven down. The wire is cut off at a convenient 
length, and the end wound around the staple. In 
late fall we draw the staples in the straining- 
posts, and the following spring adjust the wires 
again. The engraving, to avoid confusion, shows 
the lower wire only, passing to the straining post. 
In use, all the other wires are carried to the post. 
Building an Ice-House. 
We can best answer numerous inquiries about 
building an ice-house, by giving a description of 
one we put up for our own use a few years ago. 
The locality selected was one affording facilities 
for drainage, was well shaded by trees, and conven¬ 
iently near the house. The surface being sandy, 
was levelled, and four by six inch sills, fourteen 
feet long, were laid down and halved together at 
the corners. The plates of the same length, of 
two by four inch stuff, were put together in the 
same manner. Studs two by four, and thirteen 
feet long, were mortised into the sills and spiked 
to the plates every eighteen inches. The roof, a 
“ square-pitch,” is covered with ten-inch boards, 
two inches apart, and other boards of the same 
width nailed on as battens. Hemlock boards, 
nailed horizontally on both sides of the studs, cover 
the sides and ends; the four-inch space between 
the outer and inner siding, being filled with saw¬ 
dust. There is a door at the ground level, and 
another just above, both being practically double, 
by means of horizontal boards placed on the in¬ 
side as the house is filled. The roof projects over 
the sides about a foot, and the spaces between 
that and the plates are left open to afford ventila¬ 
tion. A layer of sawdust, four inches or more 
thick, was laid upon the ground, and the blocks of 
ice stacked upon it as closely as possible. The 
top of the ice is covered with a layer of marsh hay, 
about two feet thick. This house, if filled up to 
the roof, would hold about sixty tons. When 
half filled, there has been a considerable quantity 
of ice left over each year, though it has been 
used very freely. The cost of the house is small. 
