FEEDING SWINE 243 



energetically for both. Whether inclosed in muddy 

 pens or given the range of wide acres, he neither 

 frets nor pines. He grows the best he can, increases 

 his size as rapidly as his food supply admits, and in- 

 variably pays his way. As a consumer of food he 

 eats greedily and heartily, but the account he fur- 

 nishes is honest. He is waste- 

 ful of what he eats only when 

 he is denied what he wants and 

 in generous quantities ; but, fed 

 abundantly, he grows fat, ma- 

 tures rapidly, and manufac- 

 tures meat and lard economi- 

 cally. 



The fact is, when compared 

 with other meat producers, the 

 hog consumes less food for 



what he gives than any other meat-making animal. He 

 works faster. It is due in part to his digestive appa- 

 ratus, to the kind of food he relishes, and to the fact 

 that he uses less food than the other animals for 

 work and body heat. On the basis of 1,000 pounds 

 live weight the hog uses about 275 pounds of dry 

 food to 160 for the sheep and 125 for steers a week. 

 Of this he will digest 230 pounds, while the sheep 

 will digest but 120 pounds and the steer but 88 

 pounds. 



To produce 100 pounds of increase the steer will 

 consume 1,100 pounds of dry food, the sheep 910 and 

 the hog 4_o. The increase in live weight for food 

 consumed, on the basis of one point for steers, will 

 be 1.5 for sheep and 5.8 for hogs. From this it is 



