614 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Officers — S. M. Corrie, Ida Grove, President and Organizer; R. M. Gunn, 

 Buckingham, Vice-President; H. C. Wallace, Des Moines, Secretary; 

 Chas. Goodwin, Wall Lake, Treasurer; W. C. Strock, Des Moines, Claims 

 Attorney. 



Directors — First District, J. M. Brockway, of Letts; Third District, 

 David Muir, of Hampton; Fifth District, Warren Nichols, of Marshalltown, 

 Seventh District, W. B. Westcott, of Linden; Ninth District, T. L. Myers, 

 of Guthrie Center; Eleventh District, W. N. Dawson, of Cherokee. 



THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10 



MORNING SESSION. 



President Sykes presiding. 



The President: Gentlemen, I first have the pleasure of in 

 troducing Professor J. M. Evvard, of the Agricultural College 

 at Ames. 



"THE IOWA SYSTEM OF SELF FEEDING SWINE." 



(By John M. Eward, Animal Husbandry Section, Iowa Experiment 



Station.) 



There has been much discussion as regards the ability of swine to 

 balance their own ration, when a variety of feeds is placed before them. 

 Does the hog have sense sufficient to know what he wants to eat? Can 

 a hog balance his own ration successfully from a physiological stand- 

 point? Is the appetite of swine an indication of their physiological needs? 

 These are live questions, and their correct solution should mean much 

 to Iowa swine husbandry. 



Did you ever stop to recollect that the hog took care of himself hun- 

 dreds upon hundreds of years before man had anything especially to do 

 with him; perhaps before man ever saw him? Would you not easily 

 believe that during all this time he balanced his ration in an efficient 

 manner? Judging from the typical highly selected domesticated hog 

 which we have today, we would naturally believe that the foundation that 

 the hogs built for themselves in those early primitive days, in the way 

 of bodily structure, and so on, was well built. 



Would it be impertinent to ask, what did the hog do before he was 

 tamed and domesticated by the primate mammal of the wonderful genus 

 Homo sapiens — otherwise known as man? 



Of course, we will admit that since man has taken hold of the hog, 

 that the hog has had comparatively little choice as regards development; 

 he neither has chosen his own feeds nor his own mates. In recent times, 

 however, we have come to appreciate that swine do well when allowed 



