Roots and fruits are the natural food of the hog, in a wild as well as
in a domesticated state; and it is evident that, however omnivorous it
may occasionally appear, its palate is by no means insensible to the
difference in eatables, since, whenever it finds variety, it will select
the best with as much cleverness as other quadrupeds. Indeed, the hog is
more nice in the selection of his vegetable diet than any of the other
domesticated herbivorous animals. To a certain extent he is omnivorous,
and may be reared on the refuse of slaughter-houses; but such food is
not wholesome, nor is it natural; for, though he is omnivorous, he is
not essentially carnivorous. The refuse of the dairy-farm is more
congenial to his health, to say nothing of the quality of its flesh.
Swine are generally fattened for pork at from six to nine months old;
and for bacon, at from a year to two years. Eighteen months is generally
considered the proper age for a good bacon hog. The feeding will always,
in a great measure, depend upon the circumstances of the owner--upon the
kind of food which he has at his disposal, and can best spare--and the
purpose for which the animal is intended. It will also, in some degree,
be regulated by the season; it being possible to feed pigs very
differently in the summer from what they are fed in the winter.
The refuse wash and grains, and other residue of breweries and
distilleries, may be given to swine with advantage, and seem to induce a
tendency to lay on flesh. They should not, however, be given in too
large quantities, nor unmixed with other and more substantial food;
since, although they give flesh rapidly when fed on it, the meat is not
firm, and never makes good bacon. Hogs eat acorns and beech-mast
greedily, and so far thrive on this food that it is an easy matter to
fatten them afterwards. Apples and pumpkins are likewise valuable for
this purpose.
There is nothing so nutritious, so eminently and in every way adapted
for the purpose of fattening, as are the various kinds of grain--nothing
that tends more to create firmness as well as delicacy in the flesh.
Indian corn is equal, if not superior, to any kind of grain for
fattening purposes, and can be given in its natural state, as pigs are
so fond of it that they will eat up every kernel. The pork and bacon of
animals that have been thus fed are peculiarly firm and solid. Animal
food tends to make swine savage and feverish, and often lays the
foundation of serious inflammation of the intestines. Weekly washing
with soap and a brush adds wonderfully to the thriving condition of a
hog.
In the rich corn regions of our States, upon that grain beginning to
ripen, as it does in August, the fields are fenced off into suitable
lots, and large herds are successively turned into them, to consume the
grain at their leisure. They waste nothing except the stalks, which in
that land of plenty are considered of little value, and they are still
useful as manure for succeeding crops; and whatever grain is left by
them, leaner droves which follow will readily glean. Peas, early
buckwheat, and apples, may be fed on the ground in the same way.
There is an improvement in the character of the grain from a few months'
keeping, which is fully equivalent to the interest of the money and the
cost of storage. If fattened early in the season, hogs will consume less
food to make an equal amount of flesh than in colder weather; they will
require less attention; and, generally, early pork will command the
highest price in market.
It is most economical to provide swine with a fine clover pasture, to
run in during the spring and summer; and they ought also to have access
to the orchard, to pick up all the unripe and superfluous fruit that
falls. They should also have the wash of the house and the dairy, to
which add meal, and let it sour in large tubs or barrels. Not less than
one-third, and perhaps more, of the whole grain fed to hogs, is saved by
grinding and cooking, or souring. Care must, however, be taken that the
souring be not carried so far as to injure the food by putrefaction. A
mixture of meal and water, with the addition of yeast or such remains of
a former fermentation as adhere to the sides or bottom of the vessel,
and exposure to a temperature between sixty-eight and seventy-seven
degrees Fahrenheit, will produce immediate fermentation.
In this process there are five stages: the _saccharine_, by which the
starch and gum of the vegetables, in their natural condition, are
converted into sugar; the _vinous_, which changes the sugar into
alcohol; the _mucilaginous_, sometimes taking the place of the vinous,
and occurring where the sugar solution, or fermenting principle, is
weak, producing a slimy, glutinous product; the _acetic_, forming
vinegar, from the vinous or alcoholic stage; and the _putrefactive_,
which destroys all the nutritive principles and converts them into a
poison. The precise points in fermentation, when the food becomes most
profitable for feeding, has not as yet been satisfactorily determined;
but that it should stop short of the putrefactive, and probably the full
maturity of the acetic, is certain.
The roots for fattening ought to be washed, and steamed or boiled; and
when not intended to be fermented, the meal may be scalded with the
roots. A small quantity of salt should be added. Potatoes are the best
roots for swine; then parsnips; orange or red carrots, white or Belgian;
sugar-beets; mangel-wurtzels; ruta-bagas; and then white turnips, in the
order mentioned. The nutritive properties of turnips are diffused
through so large a bulk that it is doubtful if they can ever be fed to
fattening swine with advantage; and they will barely sustain life when
fed to them uncooked.
There is a great loss in feeding roots to fattening swine, without
cooking. When unprepared grain is fed, it should be on a full stomach,
to prevent imperfect mastication, and consequent loss of the food. It is
better, indeed, to have it always before them. The animal machine is an
expensive one to keep in motion; and it should be the object of the
farmer to put his food in the most available condition for its immediate
conversion into fat and muscle.
The following injunctions should be rigidly observed, if one would
secure the greatest results: