1890.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 231 



which the cost of production in the different periods was as 



follows : — 



First period, . . . . 1| to 2 cents per pound. 



Second period, . . . . 3| to 4 cents per pound. 



Third period, . . . . 4 to 4i cents per pound. 



Fourth period, . . . . 4J to 5 cents per pound. 



Evidently, at the same rate of increase, the cost of pro- 

 duction would soon have exceeded the market value per 

 pound, which in this experiment was 7| cents. Precisely 

 the same tendency has been observed in feeding all animals. 

 It pays to slaughter young. Beeves, formerly usually kept 

 to four or five years, are now often slaughtered while yet 

 under two. It costs much more to make a hundred pounds 

 of increase in a steer over two years old than in one under 

 that age. Not only is the cost of production less when 

 animals are slaughtered young, the quality is better. How 

 unwise, then, to feed swine until they are a year or more 

 old, and will weigh 400 to 500 pounds. Far better from 

 every point of view is it to promote a rapid growth from the 

 start by suitable feeding, and to slaughter when six to seven 

 months old. Dr. Goessmann, as the result of his experi- 

 ments, advises not feeding pigs above 175 to 180 pounds, 

 live weight. Up to this point they give a considerable 

 profit : if fed much beyond it, loss is the result. 



In the experiment of Dr. Goessmann, which we have 

 under consideration, he figures the average net cost per 

 pound of dressed pork at 2.98 cents ; and, as the pigs were 

 sold at 7f cents per pound, there was a net gain of about 4| 

 cents per pound. With all due allowance for interest on 

 investment and cost of care, there must remain a large 

 margin of profit. An examination of Dr. Goessmann's 

 method of calculating his result, which is certainly astonish- 

 ingly good, may be of interest. He has, I believe, been 

 criticised for allowing so much for the manurial value of the 

 excrements of the animals used in the experiment. Let us 

 endeavor to sec whether he allows too much. 



In the first place, he accurately measures or weighs every 

 particle of food, and calculates the cost at market prices. In 

 this experiment he allowed 1.8 cents per gallon for skim-milk. 

 By adding the cost of all the foods, he obtains the gross cost 



