Feeding and Management of Sicine. 609 



hard corn may be prepared for feeding by soaking the grains. 

 Ear corn and shelled corn can be satisfactorily fed to fattening 

 pigs upon a feeding floor of matched lumber, swept clean each 

 day. Corn meal should always be soaked with water before 

 feeding, the dry meal being unpalatable. Eemembering that 

 feeds in combination are better than the same feeds given singly, 

 the prudent stockman will provide some complementary feed for 

 pigs getting corn, even though the proportion of the secondary 

 feed be small. (894) 



919. Demand for leaner pork. — Consumers at home and abroad 

 are calling for leaner pork, and the feeder should cater to market 

 requirements. The demand can be met by using more protein- 

 rich feeds, with less corn, during the growth of the pig, and 

 especially by shortening the fattening period. Feeding the by- 

 products of milling, oats, barley, or the waste products of the 

 dairy, with corn, the fattening period not being unduly pro- 

 longed, produces pork which will easily meet the requirements 

 of the most discriminating market. (894) 



920. Why lard rules low in price. — Millions of barrels of mineral 

 oil are now obtained yearly from the oil wells, and an enormous 

 quantity of vegetable oil is produced from the cotton seed. 

 The combined effect of these two articles is to limit the use of 

 animal fats to the dining-table, while formerly they served for 

 both lubricants and illuminants as well as for human food. The 

 introduction and general use of the oils named has brought 

 about one of the greatest economic changes of recent times. In 

 this change we have an explanation of the low prices ruling for 

 lard and tallow. Despite the low price for animal fats, con- 

 sumers are calling for still less fat in pork, or at least a larger 

 proportion of lean to fat. So long as oil can be secured from the 

 earth and from the cotton seed, we cannot hope for high prices 

 for lard or other animal fats. With these conditions confronting 

 us, there seems no alternative but to produce more lean and less 

 fat pork. 



921. Wheat. — We have seen (851) that wheat divides honors 

 with corn in its ability to produce gain with pigs, and because it 

 contains more protein and ash it comes nearer fulfilling the re- 



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