FEEDING AND FATTEN IXG 



307 



WET AXI> DRY FEED 



Corn meal and other grountl foods are more palatable 

 and ijetter relished if fed wet. Whole grain is more 

 generally soaked than is ground grain. The experi- 

 ments made at the different stations in feeding swine 

 with wet and dry feed are summarized by George M. 

 Rommel, however, in the United States Department of 

 Agriculture bulletin on "The Hog Industry" as showing 

 an advantage of but little more than 2 per cent in favor 

 of soaking. So far as tests made by experiment stations 

 and their more or less contradictory results are indica- 

 ti\-e. either wetting or soaking whole or ground grain is 

 of less importance than popularly supposed. The author, 

 nc\ertheless. is of the opinion that in many instances, 

 soaking grain, especially old corn that has become very 

 dry and hard, for swine can be done ad\antageously. 



LIMIT OF FEEDING CAPACITY 



\n his own way the h(\g has unexcelled ability to 

 manufacture the right sort of feed into marketable 

 product, but the good feeder will learn his limitations as 

 well as his abilities. No animal can add to its frame or 

 flesh an ounce more than its natural or inherited ca- 

 pacity will permit, yet this natural capacity may l)e modi- 

 fied throug-h generations of feeding. The laws therein 

 inxolved have been amply demonstrated in experimental 

 work, which has shown particularly important results in 

 regard to the wrong nurturing of pigs. Some of the 

 decisive investigations are fully reported in W. A. 

 1 fenry's "Feeds and l-'eeding." where, in discussing them, 

 its author says : "These experiments were conducted at 



