156 HOW TO FEED YOUR HOGS 



50 gallons of water with a gallon of it there cannot possibly be more 

 than 2 or 3 pounds dry matter in every 100 pounds of the mixture. 

 On this basis the final mixture would be worth about, let us say, 

 not more than one-fourth to a third as much as good skimmilk. 



Meatmeal Tankage. A splendid feed this that has made good 

 in practice. It has been recently developed in our great pig indus- 

 try and won its way into the swine pens of America because of its 

 high merit. There are many grades of meatmeal tankage, but, 

 roughly speaking, they may be divided into 60 percent protein 

 grade and the 40 percent protein grade. Of all the available sup- 

 plements to corn meatmeal tankage (sometimes called meatmeal, 

 sometimes called tankage) ranks alongside of skimmilk, buttermilk, 

 dried milk powders and alfalfa pasture, which are physiologically 

 efficient. Swine relish tankage very much; it is highly palatable. 

 Tankage, in some packing houses, is a by-product of the lard and 

 other grease tanks, the basal tankage in these vats being removed 

 and dried and mixed with evaporated liquid residues from all parts 

 of the plant, which residues are somewhat similar to meat extracts. 

 Sometimes blood is added, so that in the end you have a high- 

 quality 60 percent protein meatmeal tankage, running as much as 

 15 percent mineral elements, a large proportion of which is bone 

 phosphate. The high heating that the tankage is subjected to pre- 

 cludes the possibility of its being contaminated with disease-pro- 

 ducing germs, as it comes from the vats ; hence there is little danger 

 of tankage carrying cholera or other diseases when made by high- 

 class concerns. 



Tankage is especially valuable because it contains very little 

 carbohydrates, for carbohydrates should be supplied by our natural 

 farm grains. This is an indirect reason for its goodness. True, 

 it is splendid because it runs high in protein of good quality, and 

 let us put emphasis on the quality. Pound for pound there is no 

 other supplement that balances corn to better advantage, and al- 

 though bloodmeal runs high in protein, yet pound for pound when 

 fed as the lone supplement to corn it is not so valuable as tank- 

 age; dried buttermilk is not so valuable, nor is dried skimmilk 

 powder, pound for pound, because it does not run high enough 

 in protein. We are speaking now on the dry matter basis. 

 Everything considered, of course, dried buttermilk powder plus 

 corn would produce gains with less outlay of dry matter than 

 would corn and tankage, but the point is that a pound of meatmeal 

 tankage containing 60 percent protein will go further, in that it 

 would balance a greater quantity of corn than will a pound of 

 buttermilk powder. 



Tankage is splendid because it promotes a healthy laxative condi- 

 tion, particularly when fed with corn. It is fine because it contains 

 vitamines, particularly fat soluble, necessary for growth and devel- 

 opment, although we have a suspicion that it does not contain as 

 much of this vital element as it should. Tankage is much 



