78 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



demonstrate, — for instance, the point of profit in a pig, or 

 rather the law that governed profit ; we wanted to instruet 

 our patrons, and this was the result. AVe commenced with 

 pigs weighing thirty, forty or fifty pounds, and brought 

 them up to three hundred pounds weight. AVe weighed the 

 feed, and, as nearly as practical men could get at this thing 

 we determined this : that, up to the weight of fifty pounds, 

 a pig increases in his weight in proportion to the food he 

 consumes ; that is, he puts on flesh with an increasing ratio ; 

 but that after he passes fifty pounds he commences steadily 

 to decrease, and gives you less and less growth for the 

 amount or value of the food he consumes. So that at one 

 hundred pounds weight it costs ten per cent more food (and 

 that means money) to produce a pound of meat than it did 

 at fifty pounds weight ; at one hundred and fifty pounds it 

 costs seventeen per cent more food to produce a pound of 

 meat than it did at fifty ; at two hundred pounds it costs 

 twenty-four per cent more food to produce a pound of meat 

 than it did at fifty; at three hundred pounds it costs from 

 thirty-four to forty-eight per cent more food, this variation 

 being due to the character of the hog. It costs more and 

 more as the hog grows larger and heavier. What is the phi- 

 losophy of this? It is the food of support. Take a hog 

 weighing two hundred and ninet} r -hine pounds. The farmer 

 says, " When he gets to weigh three hundred pounds I will 

 sell him." How often do you hear that said. Now, you have 

 to feed and support that two hundred and ninety-nine pounds ; 

 you have to hold it there every day and every minute, 

 or it drops back to two hundred and ninety-eight pounds, 

 and you have two pounds to make instead of one. Now, that 

 constant expense of holding whatever you have secured in the 

 weight of an animal is a fact that seems to be entirely lost sight 

 of; but it amounts to a tremendous sum, and consequently 

 we need constant study along this little point called assimi- 

 lation, — the assimilative ratio of our animals. AVe need to 

 watch them with care, and when we find they have gone beyond 

 the point of profitable assimilation we must get rid of them at 

 once. Now, how much is that food of support? I do not 

 know whether it is exactly true or not, but the German 

 experiments show that it is about two per cent each day of 



