618 Feeds and Feeding. 



one to another through an unbalanced or improper food supply. 

 He sees it possible for immature animals to live a long time with- 

 out showing disease, while being dwarfed in form and made pre- 

 maturely fat. He learns that Nature's plan is to grow the frame- 

 work first and lay on fat afterwards. He underetands that while 

 no farmer would feed his pigs as these were fed, wrong feeding 

 may nevertheless unconsciously be practiced by many. He con- 

 cludes, rightly, that if a pig or other young animal is mal-nur- 

 tured so as to modify its bones, muscles and vital organs ever so 

 little, and the animal so affected is later used for breeding pur- 

 poses, the descendants likewise being mal-nurtured, the cumula- 

 tive ill effects may in a few generations become very marked. He 

 sees disaster through the excessive use of corn, rich in carbohy- 

 drates but poor in bone and muscle elements, as the sole feed for 

 young pigs. On the other hand, he studies the long list of feed- 

 ing stuffs complementary to corn which will build strong bones 

 and ample muscles. By the judicious use of feed mixtures he 

 secures animals of great vigor, and selecting the best of these in 

 framework and constitution, he holds his herd to a high standard. 

 The feeder learns that the young pig should be nurtured upon 

 a combination of feeding stuffs that will first develop a normal 

 frame of bone and muscle. Ha\ang the desired frame, if the 

 market demands lean meat, he will produce this to the limit of 

 the pig's normal development, adding fat at the close of the 

 feeding period to the extent desired by the market. In America 

 corn is the common feeding stuff for swine, and pigs show such 

 fondness for it that harm often results because the practice of 

 the feeder and breeder is guided by the appetite of the animal 

 rather than by a knowledge of the composition and limitations of 

 feeds. Let us not despise corn because, when wrongly and ex- 

 cessively used as it purposely was in these experiments with 

 young, growing pigs, it failed to develop the normal framework 

 of bone and muscle. Each feed has its function in the nutrition 

 of animals, and only by its abuse can unfavorable results follow. 

 This grain has enabled the United States to take first rank among 

 nations in the quantity of pork produced, and upon its judicious 

 use rests future success. 



