19G STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



feed prices was |3.G5 per hundred poimds. Lot 8 fed upon the same feed 

 and consuming the same amounts of feed gained o71.6 pounds during 

 the 70 days, or an average of 1.32 pounds per head per day at a cost 

 of |3.74 per hundred pounds gain. 



The average gain for the eight pigs wliile increasing in weight from 

 npproximately 50 pounds to 150 pounds was 1.34 pounds per day, and 

 the average cost of production was |3.G9 per liundredweight. 



Expressed in round numbers one may say that the gains were ly^ 

 l)Ounds per day at a cost of 3% cents per pound. 



Such a large amount of experimental data is available relating to the 

 cost of pork production by the use of cornmeal and skim-milk that it 

 was not considered necessary to feed check lots for all the trials. If 

 an average of the trials reported by other stations be made it will be 

 found that, when the conditions of feeding were approximately those 

 under which the feeding for these reports was done, the daily gains 

 range not far from one and one-third pounds per head per day, and 

 in those trials where food values approximate those assigned here, the 

 cost of food is about three and two-thirds cents per pound of gain. 

 To quote specifically Beach & Garrigus, of Conn, report an average 

 daily gain of 1.27 pounds for 14 pigs fed under quite similar conditions. 



PART II. 



Cull Beans fctr Fattening Swine. 



In making this portion of the rej)ort we must repeat what has jjre- 

 viously been mentioned relative to the influence of beans on the quality 

 of the pork produced, and add that ''Canadian packers have observed 

 that shipments coming from the bean-growing districts of Ontario con- 

 tain a large percentage of "softs." 



From many inquiries and reports received from the farmers of the 

 state it was known that many were using beans alone for fattening 

 swine. Some of these told of large gains and others of unsatisfactory 

 ones. Some that had corn were even selling this and buying damaged 

 beans, feeding these exclusively, instead of making a combination of 

 the two feeds. Such feeding must necessarily be accompanied with some 

 losses of protein, and from the standpoint of food economy is open to 

 considerable criticism. However, if the beans were cheap the practice 

 might be financially allowable. When any feed is cheap and a large 

 stock of it is on hand there is a great temptation to supply it too freely, 

 and to feed it to the exclusion of other feeds which experience and 

 judgment would suggest. 



A series of three comparisons were made during the winter and 

 spring of 1000, between the exclusive bean ration for fattening hogs, 

 and one composed of equal parts of beans and cornmeal. In each com- 

 parison the duplicate pens of pigs were from the same litter and their 

 previous feeding and management had been the same. They were divided 

 evenly as could be as to weight, sex and general thrift and every precau- 

 tion taken throughout the experiments to have an equality of all sur- 

 rounding conditions. In each case there was a ])reliminary feeding 

 period of about ten days, to gradually accustom the several pens to 



