BREEDS OF SWINE 44S 



reduces its feed value. It has been found necessary to cook potatoes 

 where any considerable quantity has been fed to hogs, and several 

 feeders report good results from cooking sugar beets thoroughly, and 

 then mixing the grain with the beets while they are still hot, but 

 after the fire has been removed. (Colo. B. 146.) 



Grinding is mor.e efficient than soaking as a means of prepara- 

 tion of corn ; soaking, however, costs much less and is nearly as valu- 

 able ; both methods of preparation are very useful and well worth the 

 cost in these experiments, even when corn costs as little as thirty 

 cents per bushel. (Mo. B. 65.) 



Young hogs made faster gains upon corn meal and skim milk 

 than upon shelled corn and skim milk, but if cost of grinding was 

 subtracted the difference in profit was small though still in favor of 

 corn meal as against shelled corn. Pigs fed a mixture of grains 

 soaked for 24 hours made both faster and cheaper gains than either 

 pigs fed the same feed mixture dry, or those having it given freshly 

 mixed with water. (Ind. B. 150.) All grain should be ground for 

 hogs. Cooking is not profitable; but warm feed in cold weather is 

 profitable, because with warm feed the hogs use less of their food for 

 maintaining bodily heat. (Wyo. B. 74.) 



Wet or Dry. In an experiment at the Utah Station, a saving of 

 34 pounds of grain for every 100 pounds gain was effected by feeding 

 the grain dry. The average result from the four Experiment Sta- 

 tions (Wisconsin, Minnesota, Oregon and Missouri) show a dif- 

 ference of 7 per cent in favor of using wet or soaked meal. (Utah 

 B. 70.) It would appear that there is really no gain in feeding the 

 pigs a slop instead of a dry grain, excepting as a feeder may regard it 

 a matter of convenience. (Ind. B. 86.) 



Hogging Down Corn. In these times of scarcity of labor and 

 its high price many farmers are trying to reduce the labor on the 

 farm. Some of the hog raisers have adopted the plan of harvesting 

 the corn crop by turning the hogs into the cornfield and letting them 

 gather it, or hogging it down, as it is called. Besides saving the ex- 

 pense of harvesting the corn, there are two other great objects to be 

 attained by this method of harvesting corn: (1) The improvement 

 of the land and (2) the health of the hogs. (F. B. 331.) 



Hogging off corn may be practiced with profit on many Minne- 

 sota farms. Pork was produced with less grain by hogging corn than 

 by feeding ear or snapped corn in yards. Hogs fed in field gained 

 nearly one-third more rapidly than those fed in yards. The cost of 

 fencing cornfields may be from $1.00 to $2.50 less per acre than the 

 cost of husking the corn. The stover lost in following this method is, 

 in many cases not worth the cost of saving it. Good pastures are in 

 most cases necessary for the economical production of pork. To have 

 good hog pastures and to hog off corn economically, a carefully 

 worked out plan with a view to economy of labor and fencing is es- 

 sential. A four year rotation (grain, clover, corn, corn), works very 

 satisfactorily on small fields, for hogs, as it gives twice as much corn 

 as pasture, which is about the proportion used. It requires no more 

 labor to prepare for subsequent crops fields that have been hogged off 



