104 AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND THE FARMER : 



richer in albuminoids than straw from the eastern side. So far, 

 therefore, the investigation has shown the west side of the northern 

 division to produce straw of from 50 to 70 per cent, better 

 feeding value so far as the flesh formers are concerned. Further, 

 as soon as a straw crop is cut, loss of sugar appears to begin, 

 and the sugar can only be saved if the crop loses its moisture at 

 a fairly rapid rate, any delay in drying being accompanied by a 

 deterioration in feeding value. Delay in drying may be caused 

 by wet weather, moist atmosphere, or stacking in a damp con- 

 dition. In the northern counties early cutting showed an 

 advantage of about i per cent, total sugar, but there is good 

 reason to suppose that the advantage of early cutting does not 

 depend on obtaining unripe straw but on obtaining straw har- 

 vested under good conditions. 



Feeding Experiments. 



Some account may also be given of recent pig feeding experi- 

 ments conducted by the Advisory Chemist attached to the Uni- 

 versity of Leeds. The more important refer to the use of fish 

 meal or dried blood as food for pigs. Three pens of pigs about 

 three months old, selected so as to be as uniform as possible in every 

 respect, were used. One pen received a ration of mixed cereal 

 meals, a second the same mixture in which a portion of the 

 cereal meals was replaced by fish meal, which thus formed about 

 one-seventh of the total ration. The third pen had a portion of 

 the meal replaced by green food in the form of kale. The pen 

 receiving fish meal went ahead more rapidly than either of the 

 others, although at the end of about eight weeks this difference 

 in rates of live weight increase gradually disappeared. On 

 transposing the rations of pens I and II, it was found that 

 pen II, now receiving fish meal, began to go ahead and showed 

 decidedly the beneficial effect of fish meal. In each experimental 

 period it was found that the cost of one pound of live weight 

 increase was about threepence less where fish meal was fed than 

 where it was not fed. Finally one pen was kept on a ration 

 containing fish meal right up to the time of slaughtering, and 

 a cooking test gave no indication of any taint in the taste of the 

 pork, and furthermore the butcher reported the carcases as quite 

 satisfactory. This more rapid live weight increase is not 

 specific to the use of fish meal itself, but rather to the fact that, 

 by its introduction into the ration, a fairly high proportion of 

 albuminoids was being fed. That this is the case was shown by 

 a repetition of the experiment in the following year, in which 

 similar results were obtained by using dried blood as a source of 



