178 " IOWA DEPARTMENT • OF AGRICULTURE. 



One of the most unique cartoons that I ever saw was a car of one 

 of the relief trains Kansas sent to the Ohio flood sufferers in 1884. In 

 the middle of the cartoon was pictured a swollen stream; on the Ohio 

 side was shown a long-nosed, slab-sided, razor-backed elm-peeler, with 

 starvation minutely pictured in his face; on the Kansas side stood one 

 of Secretary Coburn's sleek, trim, well-fed "mortgage lifters," holding 

 in his mouth a fine ear of Kansas corn and represented as saying: " 'ere's 

 to ye." Through the energetic work of the breeder and feeder the days 

 of the elm-peeler and razor-back are numbered, while they have brought 

 into the foreground the modern-bred, well-developed swine of today, 

 calling upon practical experience, the scientific leader, the plant breeder 

 and the chemist to so lend their help in providing the proper foods for 

 this creature of modern development that he shall grow in all his parts 

 symmetrically, and enable his American owner to keep pace in foreign 

 markets with his energetic Irish, Danish and Canadian competitors. 



It is ''ears" to his swineship that I wish to present now, which, in 

 accepting, I feel will enable him to develop that muscular energy, 'that 

 rigidity of frame, that firmness, smoothness and even quality of flesh 

 whereby he can outdistance all competitors. 



We will, therefore, study these ears fiom the pig-feeding side for a 

 few moments. In this State of 229,000 farms, the statistician tells us, 

 are 10,090,000 hogs, an average of 43 2-3 hogs per farm. He further states 

 that the swine industry comprises nearly one fourth the value of all the 

 live stock of the State, making the hog a most important factor of revenue 

 to our commonwealth. Our State feeds to her stock approximately 

 $100,000,000 worth of feed every year. Since the most important of 

 all our feeds is corn, the "staff of life" to our swine, it is worth our 

 while to study this feed to see how it may be made to better meet our 

 porker's bodily requirements. Professor Henry, in his most excellent 

 work on "Feeds and Feeding," says: "In this country corn must con- 

 tinue the common feeding stuff for swine." 



The chemist tells us while corn is rich in carbohydrates, or fat, it 

 is low in protein and ash. The feeder tells us that corn is the best 

 relished grain available for domestic animals of all classes, and that 

 their fondness for iit is remarkable. In leeding tests, made by practical 

 swine breeders in this and other states, as well as by the various ex 

 periment stations, I learn that corn in its present composition tends to 

 produce an excess of heat, while both chemist and feeder tell us that it 

 is too low in protein ash. Therefore the plant breeder is asked to 

 direct his energies toward correcting this fault. All through the pork 

 producing states the plant breeders of farm crops at the experiment 

 stations are giving this matter earnest attention. 



Just before we take a glance at their work, may we read the pri- 

 mary units that the feeder has given them to work upon? These units 

 are protein, carbohydrates, fats and ash. Protein is that part of the 

 corn that is a nitrogen compound and its digestible part is utilized by 

 the growing animal in building up the various organic tissues of its 

 body, giving vitality to the blood; in fact feeding the body its nitrog- 

 eneous wants. Approximately 16 per cent of the protein content is 



