254 SWINE IN AMERICA 



pounds of corn. The yields per acre at the South Caro- 

 h"na station were 200 bushels of sweet potatoes and 15 

 bushels of corn, and pork was worth five cents per 

 pound. At those figures, for pork production, corn was 

 worth $6.97 per acre and sweet potatoes $18.47 P^^ ^c^^- 



The Maryland station found (Bulletin No. 63) feed- 

 ing an exclusive sweet potato ration to rather ma- 

 ture hogs "not to be economical or desirable," but when 

 sweet potato strings were made part of a ration with 

 gluten meal and skim milk they were estimated to have 

 a feeding value of about 40 cents per 100 pounds. 



The Alabama station has found (Bulletin No. 122) 

 that shotes on an average will make one pound of growth 

 in consuming 3.13 pounds of grain, with raw sweet po- 

 tatoes in addition, and the conclusion was reached (Bul- 

 letin No. 93) that "a profit is possible only by saving 

 the expense of harvesting, which is the heaviest single 

 item of expense in sweet-potato culture. If the hogs do 

 the rooting, the sweet potato is doubtless a cheaper food 

 than corn on some sandy soils that yield ten to 15 times 

 as many bushels of sweet potatoes as of corn. The vines 

 are also valuable as food for hogs. The value of sweet 

 potatoes will be enhanced by feeding with them a liberal 

 allowance of cowpeas or peanuts, which supply the ni- 

 trogenous material in which the sweet potato is defi- 

 cient." 



The Florida station (Bulletin No. 55) compared the 

 feeding of native shotes on rations of corn and wheat 

 middlings against wheat middlings and sweet potatoes. 

 The animals were common ''Razor-Backs," which had 



