Page:The Hog.djvu/199

197 "We may here notice a few other articles which do not come under any precise head. One of these is hay-tea, or rather an infusion of clover, sainfoin, or lucern hay, which is by many recommended as an excellent vehicle for mixing with other food. It may be thickened with potato-flour, steamed carrots, boiled cabbages, barley or oat-meal, and for store hogs, in particular, it is said to be excellent, not only as keeping the animals in first-rate condition, but as saving more expensive kinds of food which must otherwise be given.

"Another article is salt. Salt is almost essential to health; it stimulates the appetite, it aids the operation of digestion, and all cattle are partial to it. A little salt should, therefore, be scattered into the food before it is given to the animal.

"We must not here exclude earth or calcareous matters from our consideration. With the roots which a hog ploughs up in the ground and devours, a small quantity of earth is necessarily swallowed, the calcareous particles of which act beneficially by correcting any acidity in the stomach. Hogs put up to fatten, highly fed, and taking little or no exercise, are very liable to acidity of the stomach, and loss of appetite as a consequence. Many breeders, aware of this, give the animals occasionally ashes or cinders, which they champ and swallow; or turn them out now and then upon a patch of ground, over which lime or chalk has been freely sprinkled, in which they root and pick up morsels, which, with the lime and particles of earth, are swallowed. It is not a bad plan to mix occasionally a little magnesia or chalk in the wash or milk; this will very effectually correct acidity. Here then, we have another reason why a run, from time to time, in the field given to hogs is advisable; with every root, every pig-nut that they swallow, they take in a portion of earth."

 

are few things more conducive to the thriving and well-being of swine than airy, spacious, well-constructed styes, and, above all, cleanliness. The old prejudices—that any place was good enough to keep a pig in, and that filth and pig-styes were synonymous terms—are now passed away, and the necessity of attention to this branch of porcine economy generally recognized.

Formerly swine were too often housed in damp, dirty, close,