1890.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 109 



Our observations in this connection with the management 

 of the above summarized ten feeding experiments, lead to 

 the following suggestions regarding a proper course of 

 raising pigs for the meat market : — 



1. Begin as early as practicable, with a well-regulated 

 system of feeding. During the moderate season, begin 

 W'hen the animals have reached from eighteen to twenty 

 pounds in live weight ; in the colder seasons, when they 

 weigh from twenty-five to thirty pounds. 



2. The feed for young pigs during their earlier stages of 

 growth ought to be somewhat bulky, to promote the exten- 

 sion of their dis-'estive or^'ans, and to make them thereafter 

 good eaters. A liberal supply of skim-milk or buttermilk, 

 with a periodical increase of corn meal, beginning with two 

 ounces of corn meal per quart of milk, has given us highly 

 satisfactory results. 



3. Change the character of the diet, at certain stages of 

 growth, from a rich nitrogenous diet to that of a wider ratio 

 between the digestible nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous food 

 constituents of the feed. Begin, for instance, with two 

 ounces of corn meal to one quart of skim-milk ; when the 

 animal has reached from sixty to seventy pounds, use four 

 ounces per quart ; and feed six ounces of meal per quart 

 after its live weight amounts to from one hundred and 

 twenty to one hundred and thirty pounds. The superior 

 feeding effect noticed in case of one and the same diet dur- 

 ing the earlier stages of growth, will not infrequently be 

 found to decrease seriously during later stages. 



.4. It is not good economy to raise pigs for the meat 

 market to an exceptionally high weight. To go beyond from 

 one hundred and seventy-five to one hundred and eighty 

 pounds is only advisable when exceptionally high market 

 prices for dressed pork can be secured. The quality of the 

 meat is also apt to be impaired by an increased deposition of 

 fat. The power of assimilating food and of converting it in 

 an economical way into an increase of live weight, decreases 

 with the progress of age. 



5. It pays well, as far as the cost of feed is concerned, 

 to protect the animals against the extremes of the season. 

 Feeding experiments carried on during moderate seasons 

 are more profitable than those carried on, under otherwise 

 corresponding circumstances, during the winter season. 



