CHAPTER XXXV 

 FEEDING SWINE 



The production of pork is a great industry in America, 

 the United States being the acknowledged leader of the 

 world in this field of live-stock husbandry. This leadership 

 is largely due to the fact that pork is produced more cheaply 

 than any other meat, and the average man can feed and care 

 for pigs with more satisfaction, and better prospects of gain, 

 than in the case of any other farm animal. In the corn 

 belt hogs and corn seem a natural combination, so that in 

 the great Mississippi Valley swine husbandry is highly devel- 

 oped. By the 1920 United States Census there were almost 

 sixty million pigs of different ages in this country. The 

 states having three million or more swine are the following, 

 in relative order: Iowa 7,864,000; Illinois 4,640,000; Mis- 

 souri 3,888,000; Indiana 3,757,000; Nebraska 3,422,000, and 

 Ohio 3,084,000. Three states were in the two million class, 

 namely 'Minnesota, Georgia, and Texas. 



The food requirements for swine have been studied more 

 extensively perhaps, than of any other farm animal. This 

 fact is due in part to the ease with which swine may be 

 handled and fed, and records made of growth and fattening. 

 Exact feeding standards, however, are not generally applied 

 in pork production. The following standards, the modified 

 Wolff-Lehmann, as given by Henry and Morrison,* show the 

 actual needs for fattening pigs, and brood sows with pigs. 



A study of these standards makes clear that, as a pig 

 increases in weight while fattening, there is a steady decline 

 in the body requirements for dry matter, digestible crude 

 protein, and total digestible nutrients, while the nutritive 



*Feeds and Feeding, 1917. 



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