472 TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 



any other forms of commercial food, for instance. Consequently, we 

 can look for our best gains, for our most economical gains and our largest 

 profits in supplementing corn for feeding swine by the use of meat prod- 

 ucts, such as tankage, and the milk, either the milk products that may be 

 found upon the farms where they are available or in the condensed milk 

 products, if you wish to purchase them in that form. And as the result, 

 I think, of the investigations and with the experience of practical feeders, 

 the ration that is most used in fattening swine is the ration of corn and 

 the meat products that we get in the form of tankage. But it is also 

 of interest to know that we can grow something on the farm that will 

 very largely take the place of the milk and meat products. 



The growing and feeding of soy beans have indicated that soy beans 

 have an average value of 80 per cent of the value of tankage, and if 

 they are grown on the farm they can even be produced there for a lower 

 cost, everything considered, than the purchase of the tankage. That is 

 particularly true when tankage is so high in price as it has been during 

 some of the previous years. And if that is certified by further investiga- 

 tion and by practice, I believe we will considerably increase our acreage 

 of soy beans in the years to come as a means of supplementing corn and 

 as a means of growing on the farm the supplement that is needed to com- 

 bine with the corn in order to get the most profitable returns in swine 

 feeding. Perhaps that will be extended to include cattle feeding and 

 sheep feeding as well, to some extent. It may not give as good results 

 altogether in feeding cattle as it has in feeding swine, but the chances 

 are that it can be used to a considerable extent for that, and I am quite 

 sure that it will be found to be a favorable feed for fattening lambs. 



Then another means of supplementing the corn fed on the farm for 

 swine is by the more extensive use of forage crops. It is exceedingly 

 interesting to find the results that can be obtained in fattening swine by 

 the use of good forage during certain seasons of the year. We know blue 

 grass in the best condition furnishes about as good forage as we can get 

 for swine, but that is a comparatively short period when the blue grass is 

 succulent and fresh and in its most favorable condition for feeding. It 

 does not extend, however, through the dry, hot summer months, and by 

 making use of alfalfa and clover or of rape, we can get a summer feed 

 that will give a forage crop for swine through the midsummer months 

 and extending into the fall and autumn months, that will effect a very 

 large saving of the outlay for grain at that time. I think we have come 

 to a better realization of this during recent years, and during the period 

 of prevailing high prices for grain, than ever before. We used to think 

 that about the only way to make pork was to shovel the corn out to the 

 hogs. Today we have found that even that was an expensive process 

 when we had high-priced corn, and if we can grow something on the farm 

 to be utilized as a forage product that is a great deal cheaper than the 

 corn and that will take the place of one-fourth or one-third of that corn, 

 it is a more profitable process than to feed expensive, high-priced grain. 



It is the same principle as involved in the limited grain ration for 

 cattle under the conditions which I have outlined, and perhaps gives even 

 better results, because we don't need the high degree of finishing with 

 our hogs any more, if we have the right kind and the right type, in order 



