2;r^ SWINE IN AMERICA 



years, and some experiments with this feed, tested in op- 

 position to pure corn meal, have clearly proved the fact 

 that it may be more usefnl for fattening purposes than 

 corn alone. When used with cattle it is about as val- 

 uable as the same number of pounds of pure corn meal 

 and the results of tests have been, in general, consistent. 

 In this case it is merely a question as to whether a bushel 

 of ear corn can be made into corn-and-cob meal at no 

 greater cost than the value of 14 pounds of corn. In the 

 case of hog-feeding, however, tests with corn-and-cob 

 meal have not been consistent. Some investigators prove 

 that it is a good and economical feed ; others demonstrate 

 that it is decidedly not useful for hog feeding. There 

 are several elements of difference between the feeding 

 of corn-and-cob meal to hogs and to cattle. It must be 

 ground much finer for the hog than for the steer and 

 this takes much more labor ; also, the characteristics of 

 corn-and-cob meal as regards bulk and palatability 

 militate against its usefulness for hog-feeding. The feed 

 is bulky and unpalatable if the percentage of cob is high. 

 The results favorable to the use of corn-and-cob meal 

 for hogs must have been obtained with corn which 

 shelled out a very low percentage of cob. Such value as 

 results from the presence of the cob does not come from 

 the small amounts of nutriment which it contains, but 

 rather from the lightening, or extending tendency which 

 it has, allov^^ing the meal to become more thoroughly im- 

 penetrated by the digestive fluids, and requiring longer 

 mastication. Profit, howe\'er, requires that this lighten- 

 ing or extending of the ration be accomplished with the 

 minimum amount of indieestible material. The idea has 



