PROCESS OP FATTENING. 



127 



As fattening advances the daily increase in live 

 weight becomes gradually smaller, and the same amount 

 of food will produce a steadily diminishing amount of 

 increase. This is partly because the increase during the 

 later stages of fattening is drier, and contains a larger 

 proportion of fat than in the earlier stages of the pro- 

 cess. Partly also because the consumption of food for heat 

 and work is increased with the increasing size of the 

 body. More internal work must also be performed to 

 add increase to a large animal than to a small one. 

 These changes in the rates of consumption and increase 

 are seen more strikingly in the case of pigs than with 

 other animals, from the greater rapidity of the fattening 

 process. The following table shows ths average results 

 obtained on sixteen pigs fattened at Rothamsted at the 

 same time, the food being 7 Ibs. of pea meal per head 

 per week, with an unlimited supply of barley meal. 

 The pigs had an average weight of 135 '8 Ibs. when put 

 up to fatten : at the end of ten weeks their average 

 weight had become 276*3 Ibs. 



FATTENING PIGS WEEKLY CONSUMPTION OF FOOD AND 

 RATE OF 1NCEEASE. 



