AGRICULTURAL TEXT-BOOK. 



119 



285. The feeding qualities of corn are universally known; 

 and throughout the greater portion of the United States, it is 

 used as bread for man, and depended on for fattening hogs and 

 beef. There do not appear, however, to have been many accu 

 rate experiments made to ascertain how many pounds of corn 

 are requisite to make a pound of meat. There are many diffi 

 culties in the way of arriving at accurate results in these re 

 spects. Different breeds, arid even individuals of the same 

 breed possess different fattening qualities ; we have seen that 

 the variety of the corn used must make much difference ; clean 

 liness, and mode of feeding make more still ; while corn ground 

 and cooked is found to possess much more nutritive power, 

 bushel for bushel, than when fed in its natural state. The fol 

 lowing table, compiled from some experiments by Mr. H. L. 

 Ellsworth, may be considered as an approximation towards the 

 relative value of raw unground, and cooked ground com, 

 though owing to peculiar circumstances the hogs fed on mush 

 did not make as good progress as they ought to have done : 



Thence it is deduced that raw food is to cooked food as 68 

 to 103, making the gain by cooking 55 per cent, over uncooked 

 food ; or 3 bushels of meal cooked is equal to 4-J- bushels of dry 

 hard corn. Or looking at this table in another light ; the farmer 

 selling his corn by turning it into pork, would receive 55 cents 

 a bushel if it was fed cooked, while he would only receive 887^- 

 cents per bushel if fed raw. It is generally estimated that if 



