152 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



the rye myself, to be much cheaper tlian buying- bran and shorts at 

 the prices which have prevailed for the last few years on these com- 

 modities. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Canaday : I do nbt think that T can say very much and espe- 

 cially about feeding rye. I have been afraid to feed it and for that 

 reason I have had no experience with it. I feed it to pigs and other 

 hogs except pregnant sows, and I would not advise it because I have 

 been taught that it was a little bit dangerous for hogs and horses as 

 Avell. 



Mr. Anderson's paper has taken up all the ground, so far as I 

 know. His management is good. I do not feed beets or anything of 

 that kind, but I think it would make a good feed. I have a Avood 

 pasture and clover and blue grass, and I have arranged a run of one- 

 half mile ; that gives them plenty of exercise, and I think that is worth 

 almost as much as good feed, and of course they find something in 

 the blue grass pasture and clover field. I always give them a run to 

 pasture and a moderate feed of corn. I do not want my pregnant sows 

 to be over-fat, but I put them in good condition for the time of farrow- 

 ing and I have had' extra success in saving my pigs. If a man does 

 not lose sleep by staying awake to watch over his sows, he need not 

 expect extra success in raising his pigs for there is a great deal of 

 danger of the sow over-lying her pigs. 



There is another thing I would like to mention and that is not 

 breeding the younger sows until they are at least eighteen months old. 

 If she is bred when but a year old, she does not have a very large 

 litter and she suffers from swelling of the teats that do not give milk ; 

 but if you let your sow get fully developed before breeding her, she 

 ought to raise a full litter. 



Prof. Mumford: There are one or two things about the subject 

 of feeding rye that are pretty definitely determined. In the first place, 

 there are a great many breeders of swine who feed rye very extensively 

 to their pregnant animals, and safely, too. On my own farm I have 

 been feeding rye for five years, feeding it particularly to pregnant sows 

 and feeding it a great deal ; but sometimes, and most frequently in a 

 wet season, a fungus develops on rye whicli is called ergot, and when 

 that fungus develops, it is a very dangerous thing to feed rye, for in 

 pregnant animals it is almost certain to cause abortion. Xow this fun- 

 gus grows out in the same place where the grain should grow and it 

 grows much larger than the grain usually. I have seen this black 

 crescent-shaped fungus an inch long and from that down to half an 



