EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VII 



357 



ity, as Avell as increasing its quantity and also the balancing of the 

 ration so as to make the mineral elements acceptable, are of great 

 importance in making the ration laxative. Then, too, when we feed 

 these proper supplements with corn, we find that we are adding, in the 

 case of meat and milk and alfalfa, for instance, two unknowtis, called 

 "vitamines," or food accessories. One man has facetiously referred 

 to the unknowns as the "soul" of the feed. A noted expert has called 

 one, the fat soluble, "A", because it is found in large quantity in butter- 

 fat. He has named the other one, water soluble, "B", because when 

 wheat germs, for instance are soaked in water this particular unknown 

 somehow and in some way is transferred to a watery solution. Adding 

 these to corn helps it out, and when we add meat and milk and alfalfa 

 to the ration, we add these unknowns — these "elements of the soul", 

 as it were. 



Now corn is particularly important in that it carries a high pro- 

 portion of starches and carbohydrates, the materials that furnish the 

 energy for growth and development, and also the materials which later 

 are turned over into the fat for storage. Now corn is a very healthful 

 feed, and does not contain any poisonous principle, like cottonseed 

 meal; this is in its favor. It is highly concentrated, which means that 

 you get more feed in a hundred pounds than all other feeds excepting 

 such feeds as wheat flour or rice. It contains a liberal amount of fat, 

 altho perhaps the average ration could stand a little more fat from the 

 physiological standpoint, to good advantage. Of course, it can hardly 

 be supplied economically excepting in such feeds as soy beans, or meat 

 meal tankage, and we can not afford to feed the milk fat, because we 

 skim that off and sell it. 



What are some of the rations that will give the best results? In 

 1910, 1911 and 1912, we fed a number of rations to gilts and yearling 

 sows. The average farrow on these rations, the average daily gain, 

 and the feed eaten, are given in Table I. 



TABLE I— FEED RECORD. 



Results at the Iowa Experiment Station, 1910, 1911, 1912, Animal Hus- 

 bandry Section. Gilts — Five in all lots but last, which 

 had eight. 



Ration Fed 



Q 



Ear com only 



Ear com plus 1-30 meat meal or tankage 



Ear corn plus 4-30 meat meal or tankage 



Ear com plus 1-3 OS, B3, M3, '0M2 



Shelled corn plus chopped clover and molasses. 



Ear corn plus clover in rack 



Ear corn plus alfalfa in rack 



Far com plus 1-10 meat meal or tankage. 



7.6 

 7.4 

 8.8 

 10.0 

 7.0 

 6.4 

 7.6 

 8.5 



.127 



.432 



1.074 



1.560 



.302 



1.108 



Yearling sows — ten in each lot. 



Ear com only 



Ear com plus I-IO meat meal or tankage 



Ear com plus 1-4 oil meal, linseed meal, old process- 

 Ear corn plus alfalfa in rack 



