The Brood Sow and Her Litter. 



SIT 



fore contain the material to form the muscle and bone of these young- 

 pigs, and at the same time not get the sow so fat that she becomes slug- 

 gish. Of course, corn is too cheap and common a feed to be left out of' 

 any ordinary feeding ration, but the cheapness of a ration of com which 

 is a fattening rather than a growing feed, must not overbalance every- 

 thing else. The effect of corn alone upon the internal organs of grow- 

 ing and breeding stock is sho\\Ti by the following trial made at the 

 Alabama Experiment Station, Bulletin 82, with pigs fed for 119 days, 

 with three pigs per lot : 



Ration. 



One-half 

 Cowpeas i corn, 

 alone. I one-half 

 cowpeas. 



One-half 



corn, 



one-half 



wheat bran. 



Weight of liver 



Weight of lungs 



Weight of kidneys 



Weight of spleen 



Weight of heart 



Per cent of fat on intestines 



Lbs. 

 2.75 

 .65 

 .32 

 .136. 



.3ia. 



1.76 



It will be noted that with the exception of the lungs the lot fed on . 

 corn alone showed much smaller development of vital organs than the- 

 lots fed a more nitrogenous ration. On the other hand, the per cent, of 

 fat laid on the intestines, hence on all internal organs, was very much 

 larger in the corn-fed lot than in any other lot. This experiment shows. 

 us that for breeding stock, animals made fat on corn are apt to have 

 more internal fat than those made fat on a more nitrogenous ration. 

 As the laying on of fat internally has an injurious effect on breeding 

 stock, the practice of farmers who trust principally to corn for their 

 brood sow ration of not wanting to get the sows to carrying much flesh 

 while pregnant, is well founded. For it is a well known fact that farm- 

 ers who feed sows very little except com, prefer to keep sows in a much, 

 thinner condition than those who feed a ration containing more protein 

 in proportion to the starch in the food. 



From the data given above, it is readily seen that com alone is not. 

 an ideal feed for breeding stock, but needs to be supplemented by a feed 

 containing more muscle and bone forming material. This is usually in 

 the form of some pasture. Very few of our correspondents do not feed 

 some ear corn to brood sows, but the ones that feed com alone as the sole- 

 grain ration also have good pasture for them to run on and limit the 

 grain. When a good pasture of alfalfa or clover of some kind can be 

 secured, a small amount of corn makes a good feed for sows. But if' 

 these kinds of forage are not provided, a supplement containing more- 



