pigs fed in a dry lot. When the fat hogs are removed from the field, brood sows and pigs may be turned in; they will clean up and make good use of what is left. Hogs running at large in a field or pasture will be put in prime condition for market if they are fattened in a pen for a period of three or four months by being fed all the corn they will eat, with plenty of pure water to drink. According to Burkett,16 a 5- to 10-acre field of good corn will carry 50 to 75 hogs from the shoat to the finished period. The total quantity of pork produced from a given acreage, when hogged down, will be greater than when ear corn or snapped corn is fed in pens.

Mineral Mixtures for Swine.—In addition to roughage and grain feed, pigs should have access to mineral salts, charcoal, sulfur, etc., preferably placed in a self-feeder. This is beneficial in keeping animals free from worms and in a healthy, thrifty condition. Pigs greatly relish a mixture of mineral salts and take only a moderate amount, as much as apparently is necessary in connection with the ration that they are receiving. The following mixture is recommended: Three bushels powdered charcoal, 2 quarts air-slaked lime, 1 bushel hard-wood ashes, 2 pounds sulfur, and 8 pounds common salt.

These ingredients are thoroughly mixed and placed in a selffeeder or a covered trough (Fig. 86).14a

Feeding the Boar.—The feeding of the boar should vary according to his age and the season of the year. Thin, growing boars need more grain than older ones, but neither should be fed so that they will not grow fat, since this will impair their breeding qualities, just as much as having them in a thin body condition. The boar should receive only as much grain as he will clean up readily, and should have a chance to exercise in summer time in a pasture lot, and in the winter in a small yard adjoining the pen. Succulent feed should be provided throughout the year if possible: during the summer by pasturage or cut green feed, giving enough grain to maintain a good condition of flesh; during the winter months either roots, pumpkins, or culled fruit may be supplied. An allowance not over a pound daily of grain per 100 pounds live weight will be sufficient while on the summer pasture, and during the winter, two pounds grain and four to six pounds roots. The grain should contain a considerable proportion of protein, as e.g., shorts and fine-ground oats (2 to 1 or 3 to 1). Skim

milk is especially valuable for young boars as the breeding season approaches, and during this time two or three pounds grain may be fed; a mixture of equal parts of corn, ground oats, and middlings will prove an excellent combination.

Feeding the Sow and the Pigs.—The brood sow must be kept in a good body condition at all times, so far as possible, so as to be able to give birth to thrifty, vigorous pigs, and to furnish an abundance of milk for a healthy, rapid growth. Succulent feeds are an essential part of the ration both in summer and winter. A farrow, matured sow will keep in good condition on good clover or alfalfa pasture alone, but a young sow must receive about one to two pounds of grain daily per 100 pounds weight in addition ;

.

e.g., a mixture of oats or barley and shorts, with a little corn so as to keep the nutritive ratio down to about 1 to 6 (p. 294). But little grain is fed for a few days before farrowing, and the sow is given cooling feeds of a laxative nature, as roots, and a slop made up largely of grain or shorts. For the first twenty-four hours after farrowing no feed is given, but all the lukewarm water she will drink; she is then given limited feed for three or four days, and is slowly brought up to full feed in the course of about ten days. A grain mixture of ground corn, ground oats, and shorts (1:1:2), mixed with three to five pounds skim milk, will give excellent results at this time; she should also be given some roots and be put on pasture as soon as possible. As much of the grain is fed as she will eat up readily. 16b

After two or three weeks, the pigs should be given some feed in a small trough of their own, and this amount increased as rapidly as they are able to clean up more. When the sows and pigs are on pasture they will eat much less grain, but should be allowed

161 Wash. pop. Bul. 84, 87; N. C. Cir. 25; N. J. Report 34, 196.

a

some grain all the time as it will prevent the sow from getting too thin, and will enable the pigs to grow more rapidly; gains made at this time are much cheaper than those made later on, as has been shown before (Fig. 81). After the pigs are about three months old, they should weigh 60 pounds or better; they should get their nourishment largely from pasturage, and only one-half grain feed is given, unless feed is cheap, in which case full grain feed may be continued until they are weaned at three to four months of age. If the sow is to raise two litters a year, the pigs must be weaned at a considerably earlier age, viz., from two or two and a half months old, in order to get the sow bred again in time.

· To do well, pigs weaned at this age must have had grain before weaning, and must also receive skim milk with their grain feed after this period. If skim milk is not available, a slop is made of hot water and rolled or ground barley, oats, and wheat shorts or middlings (1:1:2). A little digester tankage added to the slop before feeding will give good results.

The amount of grain fed to pigs on pasture should vary according to the kind and condition of the pasture, price of grain, thriftiness of the pigs, etc. The Oregon station 17 gives the following as a safe rule to go by with regard to feeding grain to pigs on pasture: When the price of pork on foot at the farm is more than five times the price of grain, a rather heavy ration should be given; when the price of pork is five times or less than the price of grain, a minimum amount should be fed.

The growing period of pigs will last until they are five to six months old, depending on the method of feeding practiced, usually about five months old, when they will have reached a weight of nearly 100 pounds; they are then put on fattening rations.

The Dietrich Standard for Pigs.—Dietrich concludes, from careful studies of the nutrition of pigs conducted during a series of years, that one and the same pig under different conditions may maintain its live weight on distinctly different quantities of the same combinations of feed. This variation appears to be due to the plane of nutrition upon which the pigs have been maintained previous to the time of making the maintenance experiment. He gives the maintenance requirements of pigs that have been previously kept on a low nutritive plane as follows: Dietrich Maintenance Standards for Pigs, Per Head, 100 Pounds Live Weight. Digestible crude protein Digestible carbohydrates Digestible fat 0.10 pound

The energy requirements of the ration are about 1.12 therms (p. 35).18

The rations given in the following table have been calculated according to the rather elaborate system of feeding pigs recommended by Dietrich :

An Approximate Ration for Pigs Intended for Breeding Purposes

Age of pigs in months
Feeds

3
4 15 6

7
Pounds of feed per 100 pounds live weight per day

2

8

In the place of corn may be substituted rye, barley, wheat, rice, etc., and linseed meal or peas for soybeans, but in the latter case the quantity fed must be increased, as peas contain less protein than the other feeds. “This would also increase the carbohydrate, hence the corn would have to be correspondingly decreased. Or these

FIG. 82.-A cement feeding floor provided with sanitary substantial troughs is an essential

to a well-equipped piggery. (Wisconsin Station.) may be left out and more skim milk added. Some of the protein may also be supplied in the form of clover or alfalfa. If skim milk is not available, more of some other nitrogenous feeds may be supplied, and also more water, as milk is 85 to 90 per cent water. If tankage containing 60 per cent protein is used in place of soybean meal, much less will suffice, as tankage is richer in protein.

“ The above is intended for dry-lot feeding (Fig. 82). If pigs are on pasture, these quantities should be reduced. If the above

ration is used in a dry lot, a little bran or shorts used in place of part of the corn so as to give the ration more bulk will improve it. A greater variety of feeds will probably also make the ration better.”:18a

Fattening Swine.-In the corn-belt States, which supply a large proportion of the hogs fattened for market, the common practice is to keep the hogs with fattening steers until three to four weeks before the end of the fattening period, when they are penned and finished for market. As previously shown, the number of hogs put with the steers will vary with the form in which corn is fed to the latter; the extra grain which the hogs receive is

Fig. 83.—Portable hog-houses with low, flat roof ; if used for housing swine in hot weather, they should be provided with a shade at the rear under which the pigs can lie in comfort. This shade is five feet wide, made of inch stuff placed upon removable supports which rest upon cleats nailed to the ends of the house. (Wisconsin Station.) likewise determined by this factor, and the amount of undigested feed in the droppings of the steers (p. 273). If the steers are fed snapped ear corn or whole shelled corn, much more passes through undigested and becomes available to the hogs in the droppings than if soaked corn, ground corn, or corn and cob meal is fed. If the steers are fed protein feeds in addition to corn, they are able to digest the starchy components of the ration better than in case of wide nutritive ratios, and hogs, in that case, can glean less feed from the droppings.

Fattening Rations. When the ration of the steers consists of whole corn, the hogs are usually fed one-fourth to one-third pound of tankage per head daily; this will be all they need in addition to the corn in the droppings for about four to five weeks, until they do

16a For amounts of water and grain required for weaned pigs 1 to 18 weeks after weaning, see Breeders' Gazette, 1915, 391.