516 TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 



The past summer we have been doing some work with mineral mixtures. 

 On our annual Swine Feeders' Day, November 15, we gave out figures cov- 

 ering the first 100 days of one test and 140 days of a second. Previous to 

 this time, results of experiments purporting to have come from the Iowa 

 station as official were put out. Unfortunately, these figures were mis- 

 leading and inaccurate. 



Gilts fed on a mineral mixture of lime and salt and lime, salt and bone 

 did farrow pigs a little stronger, and with a little heavier bone. How- 

 ever, the average number of pigs farrowed per sow was not increased by 

 the feeding of a mineral mixture. 



Don't expect the wonderful results from a mineral mixture that the fel- 

 low had with the first hair restorer. This man bought a bottle of hair 

 restorer. While taking it home, he dropped the bottle on the cement walk 

 and broke it. The next day he met a friend, who asked him how he came 

 out with his hair restorer. He replied: "I didn't get home with it; in 

 fact, I dropped it on the cement walk; but do you know, it is wonderful 

 stuff, for when I came along this morning there was hair growing on the 

 walk." (Laughter.) 



Last summer we took twelve equally divided lots of five similar gilts, 

 each weighing about 50 pounds at the start, and carried them 140 days to 

 date. The basal ration fed in all lots is 3 per cent shelled corn, which 

 means 3 pounds of corn to every 100 pounds of live weight, plus three- 

 tenths of a pound of meat meal tankage (hand-fed) per gilt per day, plus 

 whole oats, self-fed. Two lots are on bluegrass, two on alfalfa, two on red 

 clover, two on alsike clover, two on annual sweet clover and two on rape. 

 A mineral mixture is allowed to one lot on each of the forages, in addition 

 to the basal ration. This mineral mixture is as follows: Salt, 30 pounds; 

 spent bone blk., 25 pounds; wood ashes, 12 pounds; sulphur, 10 pounds; 

 limestone, 10 pounds; Glauber's salts, 5.7 pounds; epsom salts, 5 pounds; 

 copperas, 2 pounds; potassium iodide, three-tenths of a pound; total, 100 

 pounds. 



This mineral mixture, which was fed at the rate of one-third of an ounce 

 per gilt per day, hand-fed with tankage, increased the gain slightly, as well 

 as decreased the feed required for 100 pounds of gain on blue grass, red 

 clover, alsike clover and sweet clover. It decreased the gain and increased 

 the feed required for 100 pounds of gain on alfalfa and rape. These fig- 

 ures are only preliminary, however. It shows that where you are feeding 

 a good ration properly supplemented on alfalfa or rape, the addition of 

 a mineral mixture is not necessary. The tankage fed also contains min- 

 erals; hence, a mineral mixture is not as necessary, perhaps, as where 

 some other protein supplement is used. 



We also ran a test last summer with fattening pigs on rape pasture 

 where minerals were fed. In this test the basal ration was shelled corn 

 (self-fed), plus a mixture (hand-fed at the rate of three-tenths of a pound 

 per pig per day) made up of corn oil cake meal, 40 parts, linseed oil meal, 

 40 parts, and meat tankage, 20 parts, by weight. To this ration we added 

 a number of different mineral mixtures, each particular mixture being 

 hand-fed at the rate of one-third of an ounce per pig per day in one lot, 

 and self-fed in another. The mixtures used were ground limestone and 



