4l8 SWINli IX AMERICA 



As a rule, a thick slop is in various ways of greater 

 feeding value than that which contains a large proportion 

 of water. "We favor the practice of feeding thick slop 

 to hogs,'' says James Atkinson, ''for the reason that there 

 is no special advantage in compelling a hog to take a lot 

 of water into his system in order to get enough food. 

 One is more apt to throw a hog's digestive system out 

 of order feeding thin slop than is the case where the 

 slop is thick, for the reason that there is not the same 

 opportunity for the fluids of the mouth to act on the 

 starchy part of the food. In cold weather it is especially 

 desirable that only thick slop be fed. because nothing can 

 be worse than to fill a hog up with a lot of water for 

 which his system has no use." 



EFFECT OF WATER IX SLOP 



The question as to how thin slop should be made was 

 taken up in an experiment at the Indiana station (Bul- 

 letin No. 86), in which i6 pure-bred Chester White and 

 Berkshire pigs were divided into four lots of equal num- 

 ber and fed varying rations. Lot one was given the food 

 dry in the trough ; lot two the grain mixed 'with its 

 weight of water, and lots three and four were given 

 grain mixed with twice and three times its weight of 

 water respectively. Each lot was also provided all the 

 additional water they would drink, and was furnished 

 salt and ashes. The feed used was a mixture of equal 

 parts of corn meal and shorts for the first of the experi- 

 ment, and hominy feed was substituted for the corn 

 meal in the last month. The experiment began in Janu- 

 ary and was continued 146 days. The average weight of 



