LIVE STOCK r.REEDKRS^ ASSOCTATION. I43 



In this group of a number of supplemented rations and rations of 

 corn alone prepared in various ways, we have a comparison of quite a 

 number of feeds on the same basis, and it gives us a good chance to 

 measure one with another. The conditions here were just the same. 

 We sorted these hogs very carefully so that the gains would represent 

 the comparative value of the feed. They were common hogs, not well- 

 bred ones. They weighed Ii8 pounds each when they went on feed. 

 They were fed for ninety days in small pens with no green feed and 

 no earth to root in. This was strictly dry-lot feeding. Corn meal, five 

 parts to one of oil meal made the best gains. Twenty parts of corn 

 meal to one of oil meal made a somewhat smaller gain at a somewhat 

 greater expense in grain and a slightly greater expense in dollars when 

 we fed corn at 30 cents a bushel and oil meal at $24 a ton. One ton 

 of oil meal in ration No. i, which is the five to one ration, saved $49 

 worth of corn. 1 get at that figure by comparison with lot 9 where 

 corn meal alone was fed. In that lot we made slightly more than ten 

 pounds of pork per bushel, about what the average farmer makes, so 

 there is nothingf wrens: about usins: that. You will all admit that ten 

 pounds to the bushel from corn alone is about what you can figure on. 

 The $24 worth of oil meal saved us $49.01 worth of corn. In the 

 second lot, it saved $90.42 worth of corn. The oil meal in the smaller 

 proportion saved more corn per pound of its own weight than in the 

 larger proportion. It has a slight medicinal value and when used in 

 small amount its value as a condiment exceeds its value as a food. 

 The cheaper pork was made where the larger amount of oil meal was 

 fed. In the first lot, the corn, figured at 30 cents a bushel, was worth 

 49.6 cents. In lot 2, it was worth 44.8 cents. 



Lots 3 and 4 were fed on corn meal and middlings. The smaller 

 proportion of middlings had a greater value per pound than the larger 

 proportion. The smaller amount adds more palatability per pound of 

 its weight than the larger one, and palatabTIity counts. In a general 

 way, it means digestibility. 



To lots 5 and 6 we fed oats with the corn. Comparatively speak- 

 ing, there was.no profit in it. I figured oats at 20 cents a bushel cor- 

 responding to 30 cents per bushel for corn. It took an enormous 

 amount of grain per hundred weight gain, and the cost of pork, while 

 it was only $2.75 with the corn and oil meal, was $4.28 and $4.06 

 with the two rations of corn and ground oats. It looks as though the 

 fewer such oats as this one has in the ration, the better the ration is 

 for fattening hogs. Oats are too bulky; hogs do not like them. A 

 better grade of oats with a smaller amount of hull, would be more 

 valuable for fattening hogs. If the liulls are removed oats are valuable 



