Page:The Hog.djvu/198

196 may be added. The flesh of hogs fed on rice is said to have proved very superior. Peas and beans, either in their green state, or dried and bruised, or ground into meal, are among the best articles of food for fattening swine. Pea-meal, or the meal of the gray pea, or gray peas bruised, are in the highest esteem. Pea-meal may be given alone, or added to the barley-meal, or to the steamed potatoes.

"Buckwheat is excellent for fattening hogs. With respect to rye little need be said; occasionally hogs are fed upon rye-meal.

"Linseed cake, or oil-cake as it is called, is occasionally given to hogs, and sometimes linseed meal, or steeped linseed, but only in small quantities, and in addition to food destitute of oil, as potatoes, pea-meal, &c. Oil-cake is used largely in the fattening of horned cattle, but whether it is equally advantageous in the fattening of hogs is not very clear.

"Beechmast is eagerly devoured by hogs, and in places where this is abundant, it will be well to turn store hogs into it, or collect it for their use. It ie an article of diet not to be despised, but as an adjunct and not a principal article. But though hogs thrive on this food, it will not make firm fat, unless largely mixed with acorns.

"A run in oak copses ought not to be neglected at the time of the fall, by a farmer who has the opportunity of sending his store hogs into the wood.

"In England, chestnuts, as food for hogs, are out of the question. This is not the case, however, in many parts of the Continent, where these are abundant, and indeed where they form portions of woods. There the chestnut tree affords an abundant supply, both for men and swine, and the latter are bountifully supplied with it; it is seldom given raw, but roasted or steamed, or parboiled into a pulp, then crushed and divested of the outer shell. By the conversion of it into a potato-like meal, the nutritive qualities of this fruit are greatly improved, and it is thereby better fitted for the digestive action of the stomach.

"With respect to apples, pumpkins, and even peaches, which in some parts of America are lavishly given to swine, we have little to say. Boiled apples mixed with potatoes, Indian-corn flour, or buck-wheat, will no doubt prove nutritious, and in America constitute a cheap diet, but the case is different in England. In North Africa the wild-boar makes incursions into the melon-grounds, and we can conceive that melons, abounding with saccharine matter, are grateful to the palate of the wild hog, and so no doubt are apples, pumpkins, and peaches, but they do not enter into the English bill of fare for hogs. At the same time, we object not to the plan of turning hogs into apple orchards in order that they may pick up the fallen fruit.