998 EXPEEIMENT STATION RECORD. 



diminished the waste Vnit considers it always advisable to feed a little nitrogenous 

 material as cowpeas, peanuts, etc., with sweet potatoes. 



Summarizing his results the author states that an acre of the best of the forage 

 crops tested, namely, peanuts, rape, and chufas, would afford pasturage for 1 month 

 for 25 pigs averaging 100 lbs. in weight, when a half ration of grain M'as fed in addi- 

 tion. The average amount of grain required per pound of gain in addition to the 

 forage crops tested was as follows: 1.77 lbs. with peanuts, 2.30 lbs. with chufas, 3.07 

 lbs. with cowpeas, 2.68 lbs. with rape, 3.70 lbs. with sorghum, and 3.13 lbs. with 

 sweet potatoes. From the results of this and previous Avork at the station covering 

 all told a period of 7 years the author suggests the following succession of forage crops 

 for pigs: Fall-sown rape and chufas, January and February; fall-sown rape, vetch 

 and oats, rye, wheat, etc., March to April 15; vetch and oats, crimson clover, oats 

 and wheat, April; spring-sown rape, vetch and oats, wheat and the usual pasturage. 

 May; spring rape, stubble fields, turf oats, and the usual pasturage, June; sorghum, 

 early varieties of cowpeas, and the usual pasturage, July and August; Spanish pea- 

 nuts, cowpeas, sweet potatoes, and sorghum, September to November; and chufas 

 and fall-sown rape, Deceml)er. 



Four tests on the effects of cotton-seed meal as part of the ration are reported in 

 detail. A sunmiary of this work follows: When fed corn meal with 20 or 25 per cent 

 cotton-seed meal shoats ate but little and made a very slow growth in most of the 

 tests. "In other experiments they required only 3.84 and 4.68 lbs. of this mixture 

 per pound of growth. . . . Calculated on a basis of 100 lbs. live weight, daily doses of 

 0.25, 0.40, 0.41 and 0.53 lb. of cotton-seed meal for 34 to SS days caused sickness or 

 death; 0.61 lb. daily for 35 days fed in different years to shoats of practically the 

 same size caused evident unthrift in one experiment, while in the other no immediate 

 effects were discernible. Shoats averaging 143 lbs. in weight were not hurt by eating 

 for 31 days 0.73 lb. of cotton-seed meal daily per 100 lbs. live weight. Evidently the 

 younger the pig, the more susceptible they are to cotton-seed meal poisoning. 



"The health of shoats was injuriously affected or death resulted where, in an 

 exclusive mixed grain ration, the amount of cotton-seed meal consumed per 100 lbs. 

 of live weight reached, with the smallest shoats 9.2 lbs., and with larger shoats 

 21.4 lbs.; while in a third experiment 21.5 lbs. of cotton-seed meal was consumed 

 per hundredweight without immediate evidences of injury, and in a fourth experi- 

 ment 22.6 lbs. per 100 lbs. of live weight was consumed without visible effects 

 on the health of large shoats. Where a cotton-seed meal mixture was fed in con- 

 nection with grazed sorghum, cut sorghum, or grazed peanuts, toxic effects were 

 manifested when respectively 21.6, 18.9, and 17.7 lbs. of cotton-seed meal per hun- 

 dredweight had been consumed. We obtamed highly satisfactory growth when 

 some cotton-seed meal was fed for short periods to shoats whde grazing peanuts." 



Corn hearts, cowpea meal, and corn bran were compared when fed with equal 

 amounts of rice bran in a test made with 3 lots of 3 pigs each, covering 7 weeks. The 

 feed required per pound of gain was 7.38 lbs. on the corn-heart mixture, 5.95 on 

 the cowpea meal, and 5.5 on the corn-meal ration. In the opinion of the author corn 

 hearts proved decidedly inferior to corn meal and to cowpea meal. Analyses showed 

 that the rice bran used contained 9 per cent protein, and the corn hearts 8.9 per cent. 



Several tests are reported in which rice polish was compared with corn and mixed 

 grains, with skim milk, and with corn with and without skim milk. In 1 test the value 

 of different pro{)ortions f)f the rice polish was also taken into account. On an average 

 a pound of gain required 3.73 lbs. of rice polish as compared with 4.74 lbs. corn 

 meal. At this rate 78.6 lbs. of the former was equal to 100 lbs. of the latter, i. e., 

 feeding rice polish effected a saving of 21.4 per cent. 



In some of the above tests skim milk formed a part of the ration. In the author's 

 opinion this feeding stuff supplied in moderate amounts effected a saving of about 

 half the grain ordinarily fed. 



