FEEDING VALUB OF SKIM MILK. 107 



just as practical as any you do yourselves. If a pig is well bred, 

 has a good pen, is well littered and well taken care of and not 

 abused, the fact that he is fed by a man paid by the State and with 

 food furnished by the State at the State experiment station does 

 not affect its health very materially. He is about the same kind of 

 a pig he would be if a farmer owned and fed him. He is just as 

 happy, will grow on the same kind of food and tells the same story 

 that he would if he were yours, provided that you feed him as well. 

 So we must not get the idea that because an experiment bears the 

 stamp of scientific work it is not practical in the way it is done, 

 and that the result is one that the farmers cannot depend upon 

 in their own practice. That is all nonsense, and the sooner we get 

 rid of that idea the better. 



These pigs at Orono have been fed by a man who has long beerf 

 accustomed to that sort of work, and I know from personal obser-' 

 vation that no more thrift}' and contented animals ever lived. We? 

 began with pigs from the same litter, using two in each lot. In the 

 case of two of those we fed them 196 days. The skim milk which 

 they ate was weighed. The meal was weighed, and the pigs were 

 weighed often, and you can depend upon the figures that are fur- 

 nished by this experiment. The basis which I have used in reaching 

 these figures is this : I have reckoned the dressed pork as worth 6| 

 cents a pound. We got 7 cents a pound for these two pigs. But 

 I have reckoned it as I have stated. Or I reckoned the live weight 

 at 5^ cents. These animals when they were killed shrunk less than 

 18 per cent. The meal with which they were fed I reckoned as 

 costing 60 cents a bushel. That is considerably more than its cost 

 this year, but I take that as a fair average. That may not strike you 

 as a fair average. If not reckon it as you please. Reckon the meal 

 as worth 60 cents a bushel. Subtract that from the value of the 

 pig when he went to the slaughter house, and it leaves 3 46-100 

 cents for each 10 pounds or one gallon of skim milk. In the case 

 of the other pigs the milk was fed for a shorter time, also less milk 

 and more meal. I was testing another question which I am not 

 going to discuss here. In the latter case after paying for the meal 

 there is left 5^ cents for each 10 pounds of milk. 



Question. Fed on meal and milk alone? 



Prof. JoKDAN They were. 



