BREEDS OF SWINE 453 



with corn. (F. B. 411.) Middlings make good hog feed, but are 

 visually too expensive. (Colo. Cir. 2.) 



Wheat Bran. This feed contains too much woody fibre to be a 

 profitable feed for either growing pigs or fattening hogs. It is some- 

 times useful to feed to mature breeding animals, when bulk, with 

 a moderate amount of nutrition is wanted, and may be used as a 

 laxative feed just before farrowing. The leaves of alfalfa hay have 

 every good quality of bran as a hog feed, are more nutritious and 

 much cheaper. (Colo. B. 146.) Bran is not acceptable as a hog 

 feed, especially for young animals. It is too bulky to feed to an ani- 

 mal which has a small stomach. The hog has but one stomach and 

 that one is small when compared to the size of the animal. But 

 middlings or shorts can well be used as supplementary feeds to corn. 

 (F. B. 411.) Bran does not prove equal to either shorts or alfalfa 

 when fed as one-quarter of the ration to pigs. (Neb. B. 20.) Bran 

 was profitably used in small proportion with corn but was not as use- 

 ful for fattening hogs as some other supplements. (Mo. B. 65.) 



Barley. This is the most profitable grain to grow for fattening 

 hogs in the irrigated sections having an altitude of 6,500 feet or 

 lower. The yield per acre of well-bred barley is sufficient to put 

 from 600 to 800 pounds of gain on fattening hogs. About 108 

 pounds of barley have a feed value equal to 100 pounds of corn. 

 Owing to the dry atmosphere and the intense sunshine, Colorado 

 barley is hard and flinty, and should be either rolled or soaked. 

 When ground, it is broken into sharp pieces that irritate the digestive 

 tract. Hogs fed barley should have all the alfalfa pasture or hay 

 they will eat. Barley makes a white fat and gives the pork a choice 

 flavor. (Colo. Cir. 2.) 



Barley and Shorts. Two home grown feeds that can be secured 

 almost anywhere in the State. They make a first class ration when 

 fed together. The millers of Colorado do not ordinarily separate 

 shorts from bran, but will usually do so upon request, at a price 

 about ten cents per hundred in advance of the price of bran. 



Barley and Wheat. Another home grown combination that 

 gives good results. Where a sufficient yield of durum wheat can be 

 secured on the dry lands of the State, this ration will prove particu- 

 larly well suited to those regions. (Colo. B. 165.) 



Oats. The meat of the oat is excellent hog feed. The hull has 

 about the same value as straw. Usually the high price and the per 

 cent, of husk make it unprofitable to feed oats to fattening hogs. 

 When oats are fed to hogs they should be ground, and for young 

 pigs the hulls should be sifted out. (Colo. B. 146.) 



Rice Feeds. In some sections of the South rice products can be 

 used to advantage as a hog feed, especially in parts of South Caro- 

 lina, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. In the South Carolina test 

 the rice meal proved to be worth $16.36 a ton with hogs selling for 5 

 cents a pound and skim milk at 30 cents a hundredweight, and 

 $24.42 a ton when the animals sold for 6 cents a pound, while the 

 corn was worth but $14.94 and $22.72 a ton, respectively, under sim- 

 ilar conditions. In the Alabama work the rice polish likewise proved 



