THE HOG. 221 



placed in a trough. The pigs devonred it with eagerness ; and, from 

 this time, the tumors began to diminish, and entirely disappeared in 

 six weeks. Three pigs consumed nine pounds in the first fortnight, six 

 pounds in the second, and nine pounds during the third. 



Three sets of pigs, each divided into twelve pens of three pigs each, 

 were devoted to three series of experiments, with the various quantities 

 of the food mentioned ; in one series barley-meal taking the place of 

 Indian corn, and the third series being devoted to the trial of dried 

 Newfoundland codfish — an article which could be supplied in large 

 quantities at a moderate price, in connection with the other food named. 

 The amount given varied from one to two pounds of codfish per day. 

 It was in all cases boiled, and a portion of other food mixed with the 

 soup thus obtained. 



The following are the more simple of the conclusions at which Mr. 

 Lawes arrived : Indian corn or barley-meal with a limited supply of 

 bran is very good food, the bran adding to the value of the manure. 

 Where the pigs had unlimited access to three kinds of food, viz., the 

 highly nitrogenous pulse mixture, the non-nitrogenous Indian meal, and 

 bran, which is moderately nitrogenous — they gradually discontinued the 

 proportion of their consumption of the first, as they approached matur- 

 ity, and throughout only consumed five per cent, of bran. The average 

 consumption of corn per pig per week was sixty pounds, or about nine 

 pounds per day, which produced ten to twelve pounds of meat per 

 week, or about one and a half pounds per day. There was a very rapid 

 decrease in the rate of consumption of food to a given weight of animal 

 as it fattened. The nearer a fattening animal approached maturity, the 

 greater was the proportion of fat in the gross increase obtained. 



Indian corn and barley-meal contain less than two per cent, nitrogen, 

 bran about two and three-quarters per cent., beans and lentils about 

 four and a half per cent., and dried codfish about six and a half per 

 cent. Dried codfish contains less than one per cent, of fatty matter, 

 beans and lentils two and a quarter per cent., barley-meal about the 

 same, and Indian corn and bran about five per cent. 



It was found that "the larger the proportion of nitrogenous com- 

 pounds in the food, the greater was the tendency to increase in frame 

 and flesh, but that the maturing or ripening of the animal, in fact, its 

 fattening, depended very much more on the amount of ' certain digesti- 

 ble non-nitrogenous constituents in the food.' It also appeared that 

 some of the cheaper highly nitrogenous foods would produce a given 

 amount of gross increase more economically than the expensive ones 

 (peas, beans) which are usually preferred by pork-feeders. 



"■ If the amount of gross produce in meat in return for a given 

 amount of food, of a given money value — is alone to be taken into con- 

 sideration, then, in addition to roots, wash, etc., it would be most ad- 

 vantageous to rely for fattening upon highly nitrogenous foods, such as 

 dried fish, or animal refuse, or leguminous seeds, beans, lentils, and the 

 like, because not only would the weight be obtained at less cost than 

 by the use of cereal grains, but the manure — the value of which must 

 never be lost sight of in calculatfng the economy of the feed process — 

 would be much richer than if the latter were employed. But it is not 



