346 SWINE IN AMERICA 



of a laxative nature is recommended. Soy bean meal 

 is excellent for this purpose. 



OATS 



When feeding oats ung-round there is generally the 

 purpose of securing exercise, and, in that event, the grain 

 is usually scattered on a clean feeding ground. Oat? 

 whole will give less satisfactory returns than when 

 ground or crushed. In an experiment reported in Bulle- 

 tin No. ;^;^ of the Central experimental farm of Canada, 

 oats and corn were fed in comparison, being used whole 

 and soaked 54 hours before feeding, skim milk supple- 

 menting both. The average daily gain of the lot fed on 

 oats was .87 pound, and of the corn-fed lot, 1.30 pounds. 

 In commenting upon this test Rommel says in "The Hog- 

 Industry :" "This results of this test are not very favor- 

 able to oats as a pig feed. To get even as economical a 

 gain as could be had from corn, a feeder would have to 

 get nearly twice as good gains as from the oats; for. 

 pound for pound of nutrient material, oats is about twice 

 as expensive as corn." 



Experiments with ground oats have produced more 

 favorable results. Professor Henry made trials of whole 

 and ground oats at the Wisconsin station, concerning 

 which he says in "Feeds and Feeding:" "The best re- 

 turns were secured when feeding a ration consisting of 

 one-third ground oats and two-thirds corn meal. Whole 

 oats gave poorer returns than ground oats. The feed re- 

 quirements for 100 pounds of gain in both trials where 

 ground oats was used were very low, and show the high 

 value of this grain for pig feeding when ground and fed 



