560 Feeds and Feeding. 



918. Root crops. Danish farmers grow no Indian corn, and yet 

 by means of waste products of the dairy, purchased feeding stuffs, 

 and root crops, mostly beets, they lead the world in the produc- 

 tion of pork, both as to quantity and quality. Prices for both grain 

 and pork in this country are now so high that most farmers can 

 profitably grow either mangels or low-grade sugar beets for their 

 pigs. A supply of these will add variety to the ration, reduce the 

 amount of expensive concentrates required, and increase the health- 

 fulness of the animals. Grisdale of the Ottawa Experimental Farms 1 

 reports sugar beets the most palatable of roots for swine, tho hardly 

 as suitable as mangels and turnips. As high as 25 Ibs. per day of 

 mangels have been fed to dry sows or those not far advanced in 

 pregnancy, the allowance being decreased and the meal ration some- 

 what increased as pregnancy advanced. Pigs that have been fed 

 sugar beets or mangels do not like turnips, but where other roots 

 have not been fed they will prove satisfactory, especially after 

 being cooked with meal. Grisdale states that during October or 

 earlier in the season pigs will economically harvest roots left in the 

 field. (873) 



919. Importance of legumes, rape, and roots. If this country is 

 to make any further great advancement in pork production, such 

 progress must come in no small measure thru the wider and more 

 intelligent use of legumes, rape, and roots. Because the hog shows 

 supreme fondness for corn and because that grain is widely and 

 easily grown, we have come to think of corn and the hog as the 

 beginning and end of pork production. It is true we provide 

 meagerly of other feeds, but grudgingly and under protest as it 

 were, regarding anything other than corn as something to be given 

 in small amount rather than liberally. Let us now change the view- 

 point and hold that it is not only best but also more economical to 

 grow the pig largely on the legumes, rape, and roots, and use a 

 heavy allowance of corn for fattening only. The feeder who will 

 conduct his operations on this basis will find his pork output greatly 

 increased and his income correspondingly advanced. Instead of 

 measuring the possible pork output by the quantity of corn avail- 

 able, one should figure on what is possible from all the available 

 corn plus the gains that the pigs can make from the freest use of 

 all such crops as alfalfa, clover, Canada peas, soybeans, cowpeas, 

 peanuts, rape, and roots that the farm will economically grow. By 

 the wisest and largest use of these crops thruout the land the amount 



1 Bui. 51, 



