58 The Bulletin. 



In the above financial estimates corn was valued at 70 cents a bushel, the 

 pastures at $8 an acre, and the tankage at $40 a ton. In some places peanuts 

 should be valued at a very much higher figure than the one used here; if so, 

 the reader can easily make the necessary changes. 



These two pastures were both used to very great advantage, and pork was 

 made at a very low cost when compared with the expense when corn was used 

 by itself. When corn was used alone, it cost over 71/2 cents to make each 

 pound of pork; when soy-bean pastures were employed the expense was cut 

 down to $2.59, |3.36, and $3.17 to make each 100 pounds of pork in Lots 2, 3, 

 and 4, respectively. When peanut pasture was gra7ed it cost from $1.76 to 

 $3.08 to make 100 pounds of pork when the pasture was valued at $8 an acre. 

 The hogs were profitably fattened even when the peanuts are valued at $24 

 an acre. 



FINISHING HOGS AFTER PASTURE CROPS ARE EXHAUSTED. 



The majority of the farmers of the South who make use of green crops for 

 fattening hogs, dispose of the animals when the crops are exhausted, without 

 finishing them upon grain for a short period in a dry lot. There is a time 

 when the hog should be penned up in a lot and fed grain alone, but that time 

 is not at the beginning of the feeding operations. He should be penned up 

 after the pasture crops are gone and fed grain alone for a few days before 

 slaughtering or marketing. There are several reasons for following this 

 plan. First, the hog, after coming off the pasture, is in just the proper con- 

 dition to make gains economically and rapidly for a short time. He is in 

 excellent health, active, and, as a rule, his frame is not covered with as much 

 fat as it should carry. The pasture has tended to develop his frame at the 

 expense of fat, especially if he is a young animal. After he is fed in a pen 

 twenty-five to twenty-eight days, he looks better, and is better, than when 

 he came off the pasture, and is actually worth more to the consumer or 

 butcher, as he is fatter and will dress out a higher percentage of good mar- 

 ketable meat than if he had been sold directly from the pasture. Second, 

 when hogs have been grazed upon peanuts, soy beans, and certain other green 

 crops, the meat and lard have become soft, which makes the animal objec- 

 tionable to the butcher as well as for home consumption. This soft meat can 

 be hardened very materially if the hogs are fed upon grain for only a short 

 period after the crops are exhausted. 



What shall the animal be fed during this short dry-lot finishing period? 

 Corn is good; corn in combination with cotton-seed meal is better and is 

 cheaper than corn alone, as the addition of cotton-seed meal to the ration 

 renders the meat hard more rapidly than when corn alone is used. If the 

 animals are to be fed not more than twenty-one days in this finishing period, 

 one-third of the total ration may be made up of cottonseed meal. If it is 

 likely that the last period will be extended over more than twenty-one days, 

 the proportion of cottonseed meal should be cut down to one-fifth or one- 

 sixth of the whole ration, and the finishing period extended not beyond five 

 weeks in all. 



A Remedy for Cottonseed Meal Poisoning. 



BY W. A. WITHERS. 



I presume that it will not be necessary in the presence of so many good, 

 practical farmers to devote much time to the discussion of the danger which 

 accompanies the feeding of cottonseed meal to swine in large amounts, and 

 for very long periods 



Many of you no doubt know from sad experience that sometimes a fine 

 porker fed upon cottonseed meal has been found dead in the morning which 

 appeared perfectly well the previous evening. Sometimes this unfortunate 

 ending may be anticipated from the refusal of the animal to consume the feed. 

 On the other hand, some pigs seem to be highly immune and can eat the meal 

 for long periods and without harmful effects, apparently. 



