288 
The report represents that each successive year, of the four covered by 
it, shows an increasing ratio of improvement. It also represents that 
with many of the Indians the means of industrial improvement came into 
their hands too recently for them to have more than begun farming op- 
erations, that most of the schools have been in existence too short a 
time for their legitimate results to be yet manifest, and that “ several of 
these tribes have, since 1868, moved to new homes in the Indian Terri- 
tory, and have, therefore, had to contend with all the retarding influ- 
ences connected with the opening of farms, building houses, &c., in a wild 
and remote region.” Yet, in spite of these drawbacks, their aggregate 
corn-crop for “1872 is about sevenfold greater than that of 1868, and 
the number of cattle and hogs owned by them about tenfold greater. 
In view of these facts, the agent predicts that, ‘* should the same policy 
be pursued for the next four years, the improvement will be still more 
decided.” 
EXPERIMENTS IN FEEDIND HOGS.—Mr. John W. Zigler, of La Porte 
County, Indiana, reports the results of two experiments made by him 
in feeding hogs, as follows: Thirty-two hogs were fed twenty-six days 
in an 8-acre lot. They consumed 193 bushels of unshelled old corn, 70 
pounds to the bushel. Their aggregate weight at the beginning of the 
period was 6,420 pounds; at the end, 8,750 pounds ; gain, 2,330 ‘pounds. 
When he commenced feeding the hogs were worth 33 cents per pound, 
amounting to $224.70; after feeding, 3.8 cents per pound, amounting 
to $332.50; gain, $107.80. The 193 bushels of corn, at 35 cents per 
bushel, cost $67.55; net profit on the corn, $40.25. Every 42 pounds 
of (shelled) corn made one pound of pork. A live hog, weighing 428 
pounds, lost by bleeding, 7 pounds; by both bleeding and dressing, 58 
pounds, or a little over one-seventh of the live-weight. 
Mr. Zigler also fed to 15 hogs, on the floor in pen, 100 bushels, by 
weight, of old shelled corn, in forty-two days. pre aggregate weight of 
the hogs at the beginning of the experiment was 2,490 pounds; ; at the 
end, 4,260 pounds, a gain of 1,770 pounds, or 24 pounds per day on hogs 
averaging at the commencement 166 pounds. In this experiment 5 
pounds of corn made one of pork, in the other 42 pounds. In the lat- 
ter case the pork was sold for 103 cents per pound. 
Mr. E. Hersey, our correspondent for Plymouth County, Massachu- 
setts, made the following experiment with a special view to ascertain at 
what size the gain was greatest in proportion to the amount of feed. 
Two pigs, six weeks old, weighing 30 pounds each, cost, $6; they con- 
sumed 33535 bushels of Indian meal, 78 cents per bushel, ” $26. 13; 6 
bushels of fine feed, 50 cents per bushel, $1.80; 12 bushels of potatoes, 
25 cents per bushel, $3; cost of dressing, $2. total, $38.93. They 
were slaughtered when eight months old, ‘and’ made 494 penne of 
pork, which was sold at 8 cents per pound, amounting to $39.52; profit, 
59 cents. The feed was measured and the pigs weighed daily until they 
reached 100 pounds each; after that they were weighed once in a week. 
It was found that the increase of pork cost the least per pound, namely, 
4 cents, live weight, when the pigs weighed about 100 pounds each, and 
the most when they were at their greatest weight. 
UNUSUAL CATTLE-DISEASE.—Senator Hitcheock has transmitted to 
this Department an account of a cattle disease, hitherto unknown in 
Nebraska, which appeared in Dodge County early in April. The essen- 
tial facts are as follows: 
The herd in which it first appeared consisted of about 150 two year 
oid heifers and steers, chiefly Cherokee stock, with which an equal num- 
