348 
PORK—BACON—HAM.—NO. 8. 
The sties should be frequently swept and 
washed out, and lime-whitened at least three 
times during the year. The most profitable 
mode of feeding store pigs, is to commence by 
giving only inferior sort of food thrice a day, 
bettering the quality and increasing the quan¬ 
tity as the frame becomes perfectly developed. 
The store or youthful period of all animals 
occurs when their vital and nervous energies 
are at the highest, which enables them to assim¬ 
ilate nutriment from inditferent food. Moderate 
exercise at the same time assists nature and aids 
the full development of the frame, the animal 
being thus gradually prepared to take on that 
increased amount of muscle and fat which ulti¬ 
mately repays the farmer for his toil and expen¬ 
diture. In making choice of food for hogs there 
can be little doubt but potatoes, when plentiful, 
mixed with peas or bean-meal, is the most eco¬ 
nomical food for store pigs, and the same food 
mixed with Indian meal and buttermilk is the 
best adapted for feeding porkers. In cheese 
dairies, peas or bean-meal should always be 
mixed with the whey, in order to replace the 
caseous matter abstracted by the cheese. Swede 
turnips boiled form only an inferior substitute 
for potatoes, their feeding properties not being 
equal to carrots and parsnips ; in fact, on the 
two latter, hogs will do well if combined with 
milk and a little bean or pea-meal. Oatmeal 
and skimmed milk is the best food for aiding ■ 
sucking pigs and very small porkers of 40 to 
50 lbs. weight. 
The theory of the action of the various articles 
of food named is as follows—amylaceous or 
starchy food, such as potatoes, aid in sustaining 
the animal heat and the formation of fat, the 
latter property being much increased when as¬ 
sisted by other nutritious matters in a more con¬ 
centrated form, particularly maize or Indian 
corn. Pea and bean-meal, from the great 
amount of caseous matter which they contain, 
should invariably form a portion of the food of 
growing pigs, affording, as they do, the material 
for forming the cellular and other tissues, in 
such a high degree, indeed that hogs fed on 
bean-meal alone are well known to form bacon 
disagreeably hard. Where pigs are fed without 
skim or buttermilk, pea or bean-meal should 
form an invariable part of their food. An infe¬ 
rior substitute for pea and bean-meal is frequently 
used in the shape of bran and pollard, which 
contain a considerable portion of the elementary 
substances required to develop the bones and 
tissues. In the present uncertainty of the potato 
crop, it would be hazardous to make that tuber 
the basis for the calculation of the cost of pro¬ 
ducing swine’s flesh: if it unfortunately eventu¬ 
ate that the potato, from its liability to disease, 
should, in a great measure cease to be cultivated 
to the extent that it has formerly been, the feed¬ 
ing of hogs will necessarily be thrown princi¬ 
pally on milk and grain. If this should prove 
to be the case, barley, from the large amount of 
starch which it contains, will be found the best 
substitute for the potato; in which case, one- 
third by weight of barley, one-third of bran or 
pea-meal, and one-third Indian meal, will be 
found the cheapest and best mixture for growing 
hogs; the pea-meal to be lessened and the In¬ 
dian meal increased as the hog approaches ma¬ 
turity. 
Potatoes mixed with the above grains, form 
the most appropriate food for store and fattening 
hogs, gradually withdrawing the potatoes, and 
finishing the feeding with dry balls of the mix¬ 
ture named. For exquisitely fine pork, whether 
to be consumed fresh or as bacon, the hogs 
should be fed solely on skim and buttermilk 
mixed with oatmeal. The mixture of Indian 
corn, barley, and pea-meal forms a very close 
imitation of the constituents of oatmeal. It has 
been found very profitable to consume tares by 
store hogs. 
Feed regularly, as abundance of foodw ill not 
make up for the loss arising from irregular 
feeding. Pigs know their feeding time very ac¬ 
curately, and nothing retards their feeding so 
much as allowing them to be pining and weazen- 
ing for their anticipated regular meal. Also 
mix a little salt with their food; keep the troughs 
and animals clean, their sties and beds dry and 
warm. Vary the bill of fare ; in doing so, how¬ 
ever, be careful not to lower the general stand¬ 
ard of the diet; hogs do much better when theft- 
food is. varied. Stores, brood-sows, and feed¬ 
ing hogs, should all be fed separately. 
Hogs do better on cooked than raw food. 
Some instructive experiments on this point are 
recorded in the Highland Transactions. I have 
seen some hogs of the improved large Irish 
breed feed to very great weights on raw potatoes 
alone —the flesh good and firm; these are, how¬ 
ever, rare instances. 
When the sow is suckling, she should have 
extra food ; oatmeal, milk, and potatoes, or pea- 
meal, potatoes, and milk, are the best. At the 
time of farrowing she should be carefully 
watched, and the young ones removed; the pla¬ 
centa, or after-birth, ought also to be removed, 
otherwise she will devour it, and thus engender 
a morbid appetite, which may eventually cause 
