FEEDING AND FATTENING 305 



does not pay for the additional time, labor and expense 

 involved, and in fattening swine for market it is no 

 longer regarded as worth while. Henry reports in 



feed showed a loss of 6 per cent in the feeding value 

 because of cooking. On this subject he says, however : 



''A few feeds- appear to require the modifying influ- 

 ence of heat and moisture to render them palatable and 

 digestible for stock. Potatoes cannot be successfully 

 ted to swine in any quantity unless they are first cooked, 

 and roots are more palatable if cooked and meal is added 

 to the mass. Feeders should not confuse the effects of 

 cooked feeds upon farm stock with the advantages of 

 supplying them with warm feed in palatable form. To 

 the assertion that stockmen who cook feed have the 

 finest animals, the writer ventures the opinion that one 

 who is willing to cook feed will usually give his animals 

 many attentions wliich feeders generally pass by as not 

 worthy their time or notice. It is this extra care and 

 the larger variety of feeds usually supplied rather than 

 tile cooking which make animals of superior quality. For 

 tiie purpose of affording variety, the various grains, 

 roots and tubers, togetlier witli clover or alfalfa chafi^, 

 may be boiled or steamed fi)r pigs and used as part of 

 the ration." 



Proper consideration for a sick hog may occasionally 

 call for the cooking of feed, and where expense is not 

 an object, as in fitting show animals or in bringing up 

 the condition of breeding stock, cooked feed may be 

 preferred. 



