Page:The Hog.djvu/195

193 and wash are not well adapted for sound fattening, unless mixed or alternated with other food, as pollard, barley-meal, &c. It is true that the animals become in good apparent condition, but their fat is flabby, and does not swell on being boiled, as the fat of good bacon ought to do.

"With respect to the refuse of the distilleries, especially the wash, it ought to be very cautiously given; if allowed too liberally, the animals reel from intoxication, until they are accustomed to it, and we cannot but think its influence upon the healthy condition of the animals to be injurious.

"This wash is not a natural food; it is not one which they will at first take willingly, nor can we regard it as beneficial; the pigs may indeed become bloated, but not covered with firm solid fat; it must impair their digestive powers, and render the liver torpid and perhaps swollen; mixed with water and barley-meal, or other farinaceous food, it may be admissible, but this is the best that can be said of it.

"There are many vegetables used in the feeding of pigs, amongst which may be enumerated clover, sainfoin, lucern, chicory, tares, vetches, pea-haulm, cabbages, turnip-tops, &c.; it is desirable that these, when given, should be cut up small, and mixed with the wash, indeed, simply cut up, with a little salt scattered among it, and occasionally mixed with a little pollard, it constitutes a good diet for store pigs, where the aim is not to fatten them, but to keep them in fair condition. Indeed, it is not advisable to render store pigs too fat or high in flesh ; they grow larger, and their symmetry is better developed, by moderate diet than by full feeding, and afterwards, when put up to fatten for bacon, they thrive rapidly on the increased quantity and quality of the nutriment. "Clover or lucern hay, cut up small and mixed with the wash, is also recommended, and, where it is practicable, an occasional or indeed a frequent run on good grass lands tends to the advantage of the animals. There are some wild plants, as the sow-thistle (sonchus) and others, of which swine are very fond; yet it would appear that these animals, omnivorous as they are, are choice in the selection of their vegetable fare, rejecting many plants on which the horse, ox, sheep, and goat will feed with avidity. It is remarkable that, although the hog will champ the fresh green shells of peas, it does not swallow the tough inner lining, and only drains away the saccharine juice, rejecting the rest.

"Among the roots given to hogs in our island, potatoes take the first place. These should always be steamed and mashed, and mixed