22 



PART v.— MISCELLANEOUS. 



Cooking Food for Swine. A great many experiments have been conducted 

 with cooked food for swine at the various experiment stations; and for this 

 reason we have done practically nothing in this hne of work, with the excep- 

 tion of cooking turnips. Taking the results of tests from different stations, 

 we find many contradictory results, sometimes the cooked food scoring an 

 advantage, but oftener, the uncooked taking the lead. So far_ as can be 

 made out from the results, it would seem that cooking does not increase the 

 feeding value of meal; and the weight of evidence is in favor of the theory 

 that cooking decreases the digestibility of meal. Potatoes, however, appear 

 to be improved by cooking. Turnips are rendered more palatable by cooking; 

 but it is doubtful whether their feeding value is increased thereby. If it is 

 desired to feed a large quantity of turnips, no doubt cooking is an advantage. 

 In the case of sugar beets and mangels, which the hogs eat readily in the 

 raw state, it is very doubtful whether cooking pays. On the whole, therefore, 

 cooking apparently tends to make foods more palatable in some cases; but 

 its effect upon the digestibility of foods appears to be injurious, rather than 

 beneficial. Potatoes, however, seem to be an exception to the general rule, 

 and are believed to be more digestible, as well as more palatable, when cooked. 



Soaked, Wet and Dry Meal. So far as can be gleaned from experiments 

 to date, soaking meal for several hours before feeding appears to improve its- 

 feeding value. It is doubtful, however, whether wetting the food just before 

 feeding has very much influence. One of the difficulties we have experienced 

 in feeding dry meal, is the prevention of waste, particularly in outside feeding, 

 where a rather large number of hogs are fed together. In such cases, consid- 

 erable meal is thrown out of the troughs and trampled into the earth. Where 

 only a few hogs are fed together, especially where they are fed in a pen with a 

 cement floor, there is very little waste. Where the meal is fed wet, there is 

 danger of forcing a hog to take more water than it requires, especially in cold 

 weather. This is most important in the case of breeding sows', especially where 

 they are fed outdoors, as recommended elsewhere. For breeding sows fed 

 outdoors, we would recommend dry meal. There may be a waste of meal, 

 but we believe this will be more than paid back when the pigs are born. The 

 whole matter, after all, is largely one of judgment, and calls for careful study 

 of the conditions under which the feeding is done. For ordinary winter feed- 

 ing, we have had very satisfactory results from mixing the dry meal with 

 pulped roots, and allowing the mixture to stand from one feeding time to 

 another. Both roots and meal seem to be made more palatable in'^this way. 

 In warm weather, there is much less danger of supplying more water than is 

 required. 



Relation of Live Weight to Economy of Gain. In various experiments it 

 has been shown that the amount of meal required for a pound of gain in 

 weight steadily increases as the pig becomes heavier. Our experiments with 

 pure-bred swine bring out this point very clearly, as the following statement 

 shows: 



Live weight of hogs. Meal required for 



lOO lbs. increase 

 ,, in weight, 



lbs. lbs. 



54to 82 310 



82 to 115 ^-^ 



115 to 148 ^^J 



^48 to 170 ;:: 455 



ing t^aWe Zdt' tW^^' 'T ^'l^u^'J^ "^''^■', ""^ Feeding," gives a very interest- 

 ing table under this head, which he compiled from the resuhs of many experi- 



