333 
Tbs RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 1, loi:» 
iK FARM A/ 
This Trade Mark 
on Farm 
Equipment Means 
Your Protection 
The “Securo” guarantee under which we sell means 
that purchases must be absolutely satisfactory to the buyer, or we return te 
money. This guarantee is unconditional, and means your protection. e 
sell everything for the modern farm, and every purchase is protec e y 
this guarantee. 
Protect Your Corn and Grain 
From Fire 
Every bushel of com or grain saved from waste mean* extra 
money in your pocket. Securo steel corn cribs and grain 
bins are no more expensive than wooden constructions, but 
will last a life-time, and give you absolute protection 
against fire, rain, rats, mice, birds, and thieves. Patented ^ 
devices afford perfect ventilation. Mail attached coupon 
for free illustrated literature and prices. Securo Steel Com Criba 
9 
Tractor Houses 
Securo Steel Garages and Tractor Houses solve 
the housing problem in a simple, practical way. 
They are fire-proof, storm-proof, rust-proof, 
portable, inexpensive, and easy to erect, made 
in various styles to suit every requirement. Mail 
attached coupon for free illustrated literature 
Securo Steel Garaze an d prices. 
Special Discount For Silo 
Shipments During March 
Order now and save money. The Nappanee Wooden Silo, 
which we sell under our Securo guarantee, leads all other silos 
in practical advantages. The door closes air-tight, and will not 
stick; there are anchors for the bottom as well as the top; the 
staves are joined with a patented splice that is self-drainin* and prevents rottine ; the 
topis made with hip roof rafters which increase the capacity of the silo. Our free illus¬ 
trated catalogue gives full description of different styles. Mail coupon to-day ve 
a special discount for early orders. We sell everything for the modern farm 
under our Securo guarantee. Whatever it is you want, write us for prices. 
Live Agent* Wanted in Open Territory. 
The Farm Equipment Co. 
Securo 
Nappanee Silo 
906 Keyser Building 
Baltimore, Maryland 
□ Securo Corn Cribs 
□ Securo Grain Bin* 
j | Securo Silos 
□ Securo Garages 
Please send me free literature on equipment checked 
on left side of this coupon. 
My Name--- 
P. O_State. 
Lasting Effects 
Active fertilizers when rightly used, will 
produce a big crop; moreover the effect in 
after years is often equally pronounced. With 
a good fertilizer the first year’s profit is often 
repeated the next; and in this respect none 
have excelled 
Bowker’s Fertilizers 
A. G. McIntyre, a Pennsylvania farmer, 
drilled in with his oats at seeding, on land 
not manured or fertilized for six years, 300 to 
350 lbs. per acre of Bowker’s. His yield was 
90 bushels to the acre. Without further ferti¬ 
lizing, the field yielded 2>V 2 tons of hay per 
acre the following year, and 3 tons the next. 
i\ 
BE SURE TO SEND “How To Get The Mo*t Ont of Fertiliz- 
FOR THIS NEW BOOK er»” contains sixty pages of informa¬ 
tion concerning the practical - use of 
fertilizers,—how they should be used 
on different soils and under varying 
climatic conditions. Directions for 
using fertilizers, lime and other soil 
conditioners on all kinds of crops 
are included. Any farmer may have 
this book free, although it was written 
by one of the foremost authorities oil 
the use of fertilizers and is really 
worth paying for. 
sake*. Write your postal today 
UHWlv FU FERTILIZER CO. 
f I IVlLiV BOSTON - NEW YORK 
PHILADELPHIA. BALTIMORE, BUFFALO, CINCINNATI 
8U85I0IAAV Of* THE AMERICAN AGRICULTURAL CHEMICAL COMPANY 
Questions About Pigs 
Answered By Prof. F. C. Minkler 
Successful Swine Raising 
Dollars are scarce this year with me, 
but your new department of live stock de¬ 
cided me to renew my subscription. I am 
not a farmer, but am interested in swine, 
though as yet am not a success at it. We 
are often warned against feeding corn to 
breeding sows, but if 1 did not feed some 
corn to mine they would stop growing al¬ 
together. I have been feeding swiue near¬ 
ly five years; have learned much, but 
have much more to learn yet. While my 
swiue look healthy, they do not make the 
gains they should. At the present time 
am feeding my breeders 112 lbs. of shelled 
corn. 100 lbs. bran, 100 lbs. wheat mid¬ 
dlings. 15 lbs. oilmeal, 15 lbs. digester 
tankage. 3 lbs. of salt; this makes one 
mixing, and I give them all they will clean 
up promptly, say in 20 or 30 minutes. 
How can this ration be changed to in¬ 
crease my corn safely, at the same time 
their growth? This is fed as a thick slop 
twice daily; also feed oats and apples 
sparingly. Having read considerable about 
the Ilampshires, about their quick growth, 
uniform size of each iu the litters, their 
hardihood, etc., I sent an order to an ad¬ 
vertiser in The R. N.-Y. for two three- 
months-old sow pigs. When they came 
they weighed hardly S2^ lbs; one 
weighed 34 lbs., the other weighed 48 
lbs. Is this a fair sample of what the 
Ilampshires can do? My Yorkshires eat 
much and gain little, hut they can beat 
that. Are the Ilampshires as hardy as 
represented? Are they more so than the 
Berk shires? Are they as good, all things 
considered, as the Berkshires? My pigs 
this last, two years have cost me about 
$80 each, more than they have earned. 
Massachusetts. w. h. b. 
Just where you obtained the informa¬ 
tion that has prompted you to withold 
corn from your market or breeding swine 
would be interesting, for it is generally 
admitted that corn is king and Alfalfa is 
queen when^it comes to feeding pigs, th 
common fault being, especially prevalent 
iu the corn belt, that the pigs are fed 
nothing but corn, with the result that they 
boron e too fleshy and do not develop the 
stretch and frame that are essential in a 
breeding and feeding animal. I would 
criticize the ration that you are now 
feeding from two standpoints. You are 
feeding wheat bran, which is clearly too 
expensive and in any event ill suited for 
feeding market pigs or even brood sows. 
The other criticism that I would make 
is that you are feeding too much protein. 
It is not necessary to feed oilmeal and 
digester tankage at the same time; fur¬ 
thermore, from 8 to 10 lbs. of digester 
tankage with each 100 lbs. of corn fed. 
will supply protein and mineral matter in 
abundance. For brood sows I would in¬ 
sist. first of all, that they eat a generous 
amount of Alfalfa or clover hay. If you 
have facilities for cutting the Alfalfa or 
clover and steaming it. this practice has 
its merits ; otherwise T would simply feed 
the leafy hay in slat racks so arranged 
that the pigs could not waste the mate¬ 
rial. In addition to the hay, I would 
give them simply ear corn and digester 
tankage, feeding not more than 5 lbs. of 
the tankage in the form of a thin slop, 
with each 100 lbs. of ear corn. The ash 
in the Alfalfa, ns well as the protein, will 
replace a considerable amount of the 
tankage. 
The only time that I would use middlings 
in any ration for swine would be for young¬ 
sters weighing less than 30 lbs. The 
only time I would include bran in the 
ration would be during the two weeks 
previous to farrowing and the 10 days 
following this event. Oats are far more 
desirable for use iu feeding mature ani¬ 
mals. especially breeding animals, than 
are middlings, and their cost is very much 
less. There are several reasons why pigs 
do not gain readily in weight, even though 
their appetites are apparently normal. 
Tn the first place, they have not in¬ 
herited genuine feeding qualities. This 
is often the case, and if all of your ani¬ 
mals show the same inclination, they have 
probably been stunted during some period 
of their development, or their ancestors 
did not represent the type of animal 
known to have feeding and gaining qual¬ 
ities. Again* your pigs may lie too closely 
confined, or they may he infested with 
external or internal parasites. It' you 
have used hog cholera serum or virus in 
controlling this disease, or in guarding 
I against it, instances are very frequent 
where the use of thi* material checks then- 
growth and prevents them from making 
natural or satisfactory gains. If they are 
inbred and closely related the same 
trouble would be experienced. A three- 
months-old pig of any breed weighing only 
34 or even 4S lbs., is a very poor speci¬ 
men indeed, and you will never get a new 
dollar for an old one in feeding pigs of 
this type and size. The Hampshire breed 
of swine has gained immensely iu popu¬ 
larity during the last few years. The 
fact that they produce large litters, and 
that the dams were good mothers and 
heavy milkers, made representatives of 
this breed attractive to the corn belt 
farmer who had been disappointed with 
certain representatives of the extreme lard 
type that proved to be irregular breeders 
and inattentive mothers. Nevertheless, 
they are no more hardy than other breeds, 
and they do not excel in feeding qualities. 
Their heads are very objectionable, being 
narrow, long and coarse, and I have never 
known a ratty-headed animal to be an 
economical feeder. It is unsatisfactory to 
compare the virtues of one breed with 
those of another, for there are such dif¬ 
ferences in individuality within the breeds 
that comparisons do not mean very mu chi 
The Ilampshires are more upstanding 
than the Berkshires, do not begin to have 
the development of ham nor the flesh on 
their back and loin that the other lard 
types possess. They are also very coarse 
and heavy about the shoulders, and lack 
the refinement and symmetry that have 
popularized the Berkshire, the Duroc Jer¬ 
sey. the Poland China or the Chester 
Whites. You cannot afford to keep rep¬ 
resentatives of several breeds. Make sure 
that the breed you tie to inherits genuine 
feeding and grazing qualities. Satisfy 
yourself that the individuals are repre¬ 
sentatives of that type known to have 
early maturing qualities and do not rely 
upon the glittering advertisements of pro¬ 
moters of new breeds of swine, to supply 
you with foundation stock. Go to the 
most successful swine breeder in your dis¬ 
trict, select a few animals that are known 
to he healthy and vigorous, then feed and 
care for them in your own way. 
Make sure that the pigs have access to 
charcoal, hone meal, ground limestone and 
copperas, but I would not add any salt to 
the grain mixture. It is very apt to spoil 
the flavor of the entire mixture. 
Composition of Tankage 
What would tankage he worth as hog 
feed? A fertilizer plant near here is put¬ 
ting up a hog tankage with no analysis. 
They tell us it is the animals they kill, 
and that they take the skin off, then cook 
and grind the animal just as it is. Some¬ 
times a little of the bone is taken out. 
What would be the average analysis, and 
what would it lie worth? We can buy 
another tankage, GO per cent protein, at 
$G per 100 and tin* local for $3. 
Pennsylvania. o. E. C. 
Usually the material you describe is 
sold to concerns for u-^e in the. manufac¬ 
ture of commercial fertilizer. The chances 
are that it will analyze from 16 to 20 per 
cent of protein, and it is doubtful indeed 
if it is worth $3 per 100 lbs., or $0 per 
ton. The other digester tankage supposedly 
contains about 50 per cent of blood meal, 
and it does not contain as much filler as 
is suggested in your description of the 
low-grade tankage. The only way to de¬ 
termine its value is to feed it in compari¬ 
son with digester tankage, or. better yet. 
if you would send a sample of this ma¬ 
terial to the Experiment Station at State 
College. Pa., and ask them to make a 
nitrogen determination and advise von as 
to the protein and ash content, you could 
easily determine whether it contains 1G 
per cent of protein, more or less. Fur¬ 
thermore, there is danger in buying tank¬ 
age locally lest disease germs lurk iu the 
product. It is seldom that small concerns 
have the facilities for digesting and car¬ 
ing for the tankage iu an efficient and 
painstaking manner, and very often out¬ 
breaks of hog cholera or evidence of tu¬ 
berculosis can be traced directly to the 
use of the low-grade, improperly pre¬ 
pared tankage, 
