138 MISSOUKI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



for it. If you want a good education, come here and pay the price. As 

 Mr. Frost says: "If a man wants something good, he sends to a re- 

 liable house and pays the price." 



SOME RATIONS FOR FEEDING HOGS. 



(Prof. E. B. Forbes, Agricultural College.) 



I have chosen to speak to you on the economical use of grain for 

 fattening hogs — a plain talk on a plain subject, which comes pretty close 

 to the business of every farmer. Our object in feeding hogs is to make 

 the most pork possible from a bushel of corn with the least expenditure 

 for supplementary feeds. I say supplementary feeds — that is, feeds to 

 be used with corn — on account of the fact that corn itself is not a per- 

 fect hog feed. 



I shall not dwell upon the deficiencies of corn as a hog feed — that 

 is corn alone — but will merely enumerate them because that is a story in 

 itself. The deficiencies are as follows : There is not as much protein in 

 corn as a fattening hog needs. Compared with the protein there is an 

 excess of starch. A hog uses these nutriments in certain definite pro- 

 portions, in a measure irrespective of the amounts in which they were 

 present. If you feed him too much starch in proportion to the protein, 

 he wastes the starch. We know that we can improve the ration of corn 

 alone. The question is, can we afTord to improve it? Another deficiency 

 is that corn lacks mineral matter — ash — bone food. The third is that 

 a hog, fed on corn alone is confined to a monotonous fare, and although 

 it seems absurd to speak of corn as lacking palatability, still, we can 

 combine a mixed ration of which a hog will cat much more than of corn 

 alone. 



I believe that the cheapest pork is usually made on pasture because 

 green crops are our cheapest feeds. A well compounded grain ration, 

 however, will make pork in a dry lot in the winter time very nearly, if 

 net quite as cheaply. 



There are two common methods of treatment of hogs on pasture. 

 One is to push the pig from birth until he has reached the market weight, 

 to make as much pork every day as it is possible for the pig to make. 

 The other method is to grow the pig slowly during the summer time, 

 making as much pork out of the green feed as possible and to finish on 

 a short period of full feeding at a later date. These two methods each 

 have their points of superiority. The question is one that cannot be 

 definitely decided for all ; it must be decided for each one according to 



