168 
•Xbe RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
January 24, 1920 
T HE successful farmer raises 
bigger crops and cuts down 
costs by investment in labor-saving 
machinery. 
Good prices for the farmers’ crops 
encourage new investment, more 
production and greater prosperity. 
Out of acctimn 
•ated capital have 
arisen all the suc¬ 
cesses of industry 
and applied sci¬ 
ence, all the com¬ 
forts and ameliora¬ 
tions of the com¬ 
mon lot. Upon it 
the world must de¬ 
pend for the process 
of reconstruction in 
which all have to 
share. 
'—JAMES J. HILL. 
But the success of agriculture de¬ 
pends on the growth of railroads— 
the modern beasts of burden that 
haul the crops to the world’s mar¬ 
kets. 
The railroads—like the farms— 
increase their output and cut down 
unit costs by the constant invest¬ 
ment of new capital. 
With fair prices for the work they 
do, the railroads are able to attract 
new capital for expanding their fa¬ 
cilities. 
Rates high enough to yield a fair 
return will insure railroad growth, 
and prevent costly traffic conges¬ 
tion which invariably results in 
poorer service at higher cost. 
National wealth can increase only 
as our railroads grow. 
Poor railroad service is dear at 
any price. No growing country can 
long pay the price of inadequate 
transportation facilities. 
oJhid advertisement Is published by the 
£tssociatioii ofQlailwaxj ‘toxecuti vex 
Those desiring information concerning the, railroad sit na¬ 
tion mag obtain literature by writing to The Association 
of Railway Executives 61 R road way. New York 
SELF FEEDERS! 
For fattening liog». If you are not using one you 
are wasting a lot of expensive feed. We have the 
best and cheapest feeder on the market. Write for 
full particulars. H. B. ELLIOTT & CO., Au Tram, Michigan 
I EARN T1IE AUTOMOBILE BUSINESS. 
L We are giving better instruction and more for the 
money than any other school. Write for reasons 
why. NEW YORK SCHOOL OF MOTORING. Utica, New York 
a . HAKE A DOLLAR AS llOl lt. SELL MENOET8 
APeiltS a patent patch for instantly mending leaks 
in all utensils. Sample pack age free. 
COLLETTE Midi. CO., Prpt. IDS, Vinsterdnm, N.Y. 
FARM WAGONS 
High or low wheels— 
steel or wood—wide 
or narrow tires. 
Wagon parts of all 
kinds. Wheels to fit 
any running gear. 
Catalog illustrated in colors freo. 
Co., 48Elm St., Quincy, III. 
Save 25% on Roofing 
CENTURYRubber Roofing is solddiri 
from factory to you. Best and cheapest in Am- 
| ica. Long guarantee. Wo pay freight. Send 1 
rprC samples, catalog and bargain prii 
* - Write today. 
CENTURY MFG.CO, .in') Katherine Bldg. E.St.Louis. 
Swine Husbandry 
By Prof. F. C. Minkler 
Failure with Pigs 
Some time afro I wrote to you for iufcrr- 
matiou in regard to feeding brood sows. I 
wrote that I was feeding roots and apples 
sparingly. However, instead of getting 
nearer easy street, as I expected, I am 
selling my pigs as fast as I can, before I 
drop into the poorhowe. I bred last Fall 
to farrow in tlie Spring four nice pure¬ 
bred mature sows. Two had given me 
three litters each of 10 in each litter, and 
I expected to. raise about 40 pigs this 
Spring. Vain hojjfc^jny best sow far¬ 
rowed 17 pigs, lost'n#m all before they 
were three days old. Next sow farrowed 
10 pigs, lost all but two soon afterward; 
third sow farrowed 12, lost all but four; 
fourth sow had none. So, instead of 
learning and earning more I learned and 
lost more. Everything was done for these 
sows that I could think of. giving them 
the best of quarters, exercise, food and 
care. Why the failure? I can only think 
of one thing; perhaps this was the cause 
of my failure; I do not know. To save 
feeding some grain, which wa§ very high 
in price, I fed some rutabaga turnips. As 
they would not eat. them raw, I boiled 
them and put them in the pigs’ slop, wa¬ 
ter and all. The result was that my sows 
had no milk for their young. These sows 
looked all right up to farrowing. My wife 
told a young man bought up on a farm 
about my failure. He said the turnips 
did it. W. H. B. 
Massachusetts. 
No doubt the boiled turnips were a con¬ 
tributing factor in your failure to obtain 
results in raising pigs. Pigs require con¬ 
centrated feeding stuffs in order to make 
satisfactory and economical gains and, 
while a certain amount of succulence, 
6iich as would be provided by turnips or 
mangels, is beneficial, any attempt to feed 
them exclusively or even largely on such 
material could only result in failure. Par¬ 
ticularly is this true of breeding animals 
that require a generous amount of ash 
and mineral matter. In view of the fact 
that all three of the sows failed to come 
to their milk normally it would substan¬ 
tiate the claim that they were improperly 
fed during their gestation period. 
Making Hog Pasture 
I have a iS-acre field which has been 
sown to rye that I would like to seed 
down in some manner to carry the sows 
and pigs throughout the season. The soil 
is of good quality and thoroughly tiled. 
Ohio. J. E. M. , 
I would pasture the area as early in 
the Spring as it is possible to get the pigs 
on the field. A 15-acre area ought to 
carry a relatively large number of pigs. 
There is a difference of opinion as to 
whether better results would follow where 
the rye was permitted to head out and 
the pigs to hog down this crop, as against 
the practice of plowing under the rye as 
a green manure crop. As soon as the 
stems become wiry and as soon as the 
pigs refuse to eat the material the area 
should be seeded with a mixture of rape. 
Soy beans and Sweet clover. Of course 
this forage crop can be planted after the 
rye has been hogged off the ground and 
plowed and prepared as for seeding, yet 
it will make tlie forage rather late in ma¬ 
turing. The proper amounts are as fol¬ 
lows: 1 % bu. Soy beans. 4 lbs. Dwarf 
Essex rape, 12 lbs. white blooming Sweet 
clover. The rape and Sweet clover can be 
mixed together amd seeded either by 
means of a seeder attachment on an or¬ 
dinary grain drill, or by the use of the 
wheelbarrow seeder, while the Soy beans 
would best be seeded with a grain drill. 
Th“ Soy beans should not be seeded until 
aoouL the 15th of May, or even up to 
June 1. for they are a hot weather crop 
and will not grow vigorously if seeded 
too early in Spring. It wpuld not he pos¬ 
sible to mix the Soy beans, rape and 
Sweet clover previous to seeding, for the 
clover and rape seed would trickle down 
through the drill and make it impossible 
to establish a uniform stand. Usually it 
is possible to pasture this are about six 
weeks after seeding, and yet much de¬ 
pends upon growing conditions. A better 
rule to follow would he to turn into this 
.forage crop when the plants are from 
seven to nine inches in height. A suffi¬ 
cient number of pigs should he pastured 
so as to keep the growth well in hand, yet 
the area should never present the appear¬ 
ance of a closely cropped pasture. 
Hoghouse Floor 
Will you give a little information re¬ 
garding the use of hollow tile for floor 
in a hoghouse? Where a wall of cement 
has been built for a foundation can the 
blocks be fitted in and put right on the 
ground after it has \.>eu leveled 7 Does 
sand have to be put in the cracks oetween 
the blocks to make them fit tight? How 
should they he laid—the length or the 
width of the building? The building we 
expected to use them in will measure 
about 111x7 ft. inside the wall. Do not 
like cement on account of dampness. 
Iowa. n. ,T. s. 
The most economical floor for a hog¬ 
house is of a difference of opinion. As¬ 
suming that your building is located in 
an area naturally well drained. I would 
remove the dirt and put in a base of at 
least eight inches of cinders and sand. 
Gravel would be the next choice if cin¬ 
ders are not available. The only objec¬ 
tion to the use of hollow tile is the fact 
that the pigs are likely to root them out 
unless they are laid in cement. If you 
fill the blocks with sand, as you have 
suggested, you would lose the very object 
that lias prompted the use of hollow tile, 
viz: ‘to provide an air space that will 
remove all dampness. It makes little dif¬ 
ference whether the hollow tile are laid 
the long way of the building, but I would 
surely cement the joints and then cover 
over the hollow tile with a generous coat¬ 
ing of cement. This will hold them in 
place and will provide a permanent floor. 
It may be necessary even with this sort 
of a floor to provide wooden coverings of 
the cement for sleeping quarters for very 
young pigs; but such coverings can be 
temporarily installed and removed during 
the Summer season. 
Advantages of Self-Feeder 
Will you tell me the main advantages 
and disadvantages of a self-feeder for 
hogs, especially as to its economy with 
feed? I have two sows that will farrow 
soon that I contemplate putting on pas¬ 
ture and self-feeder when the pigs are a 
few weeks old; also some undersized 
shotes about four mouths old. Wliat 
would you advise putting in feeder for 
them? My pasture is not large enough 
for both shotes and sows. Which would 
make the best use of it? It consists of 
rape, Crimson clover and a grain mix¬ 
ture. The feed stores here sell cracked 
corn and shipstuff. What is the difference 
in those two and hominy and white mid¬ 
dlings which you speak of? Should 
ground oats be sifted for pigs? H. M. s. 
Virginia. 
The advantages in using the self-feeder 
for market pigs are that you are sure that 
the pigs are supplied with all of the grains 
that their appetites suggest, and that 
they will select the materials best suited 
to their needs. The one object in finish¬ 
ing market pigs is to make sure that they 
make the greatest possible gain in the 
shortest length of time at the least cost; 
but experimental data justifies the state¬ 
ment that the pig is clearly the best judge 
both as to kind and quantity of the differ¬ 
ent materials that are essential for rapid 
and economical gains. 
Concerning the two sows that are due 
to farrow, I would not use the self- 
feeder in this instance until the pigs are 
three or four weeks old, at which time it 
would be advisable to put in one of the 
feeders and let both the sows and the 
pigs have all of the feed that they will 
clean up with relish. The sows should be 
takeu out when the pigs are seven or eight 
weeks old, and denied all corn until their 
udders are completely dried up. 
For the undersized shotes four mouths 
old I would .sui*ely use the self-feeder, al¬ 
though at the outset I would make sure 
that these youngsters are not infected 
with parasites, and. unless they made 
good gains on the self-feeder I would not 
attempt to fatten them during the Winter 
months, but rather sell them for pork as 
soon as they reach 125 lbs. There is 
nothing gained in maintaining a lot of 
undersized pigs and feeding them a lot 
of high-priced feeds during the Winter. 
One may be justified in keeping under¬ 
sized pigs during the Summer, when for¬ 
age crops are available, but never should 
they have a place in one’s yard during 
cold weather. As for materials to use in 
the self-feeder, I would use cornmeal. 
hominy meal or shelled corn in one hop¬ 
per, ground oats in another hopper, low- 
grade middlings or shipstuff in still an¬ 
other, and digester tankage in a similar 
hopper. 
As to . the difference between cracked 
corn and hominy meal or cornmeal, as re¬ 
ferred to repeatedly in these columns, I 
would say that the cracked corn contains 
a little higher percentage of protein since 
a considerable portion of the meal has 
been lempved and there is a larger pro¬ 
portion of the outside of the kernel in 
ithe ciacked corn. What the millers 
identity as “ship stuff” is low-grade mid¬ 
dlings, usually containing the sweepings 
about the mill which am not necessarily 
confined to by-products from wheat. Mid¬ 
dlings, as the term should be recognized, 
contain only low-grade flour, I should 
prefer the cracked corn to either cornmeal 
or hominy in case they could be secured 
at the same price, and it makes a splendid 
carbohydrate base for feeding pigs.. 
As to sifting ground oats for pigs. 1 
would do this, if possible, when the pigs 
are small; that is, when they are under 
10 weeks old, but for animals weighing as 
much as 75 lbs. thre would be no advan¬ 
tage in sifting them. I am a great be¬ 
liever in utilizing ground oats for growing 
pigs, and am satisfied that it will improve 
any ration. Barley oftentimes is more 
economical than corn, and it is used ex¬ 
tensively in the West where corn is not 
available. It is my belief that, as time 
goes on you will find the Eastern farmer 
growing more barley in combination with 
his oats, especially if the product is in¬ 
tended for feeding purposes. 
