SWINE. 179 



till the digestive organs can accommodate themselves to the new 

 regimen. To make such an experiment conclusive, the two 

 lots should have been kept separate, and fed, the one on cooked 

 and the other on raw food, from beginning to end, and the 

 results compared. 



It should be considered, secondly, that cooking adds three 

 times its bulk to meal ; so that with the same quantity of food, 

 the hogs got only one-third the amount of nutriment in the 

 cooked as in the raw state. Swine will consume a larger quan- 

 tity of cooked than of uncooked food ; but the excess will still 

 leave a deficiency equal to one-half as compared with meal in 

 its natural state. If a hog will eat four bushels of raw meal in 

 a month, he will eat only two bushels of cooked meal in the 

 same time. Admitting, then, that meal is greatly enhanced in 

 value for fattening by cooking ; that the starch and oil and 

 gluten and other nutritious substances are brought into condi- 

 tion to be more readily taken up by the system ; still, that the 

 increased value of cooking meal in digestibility and ready assim- 

 ilation, is equal to a gain of one-half, is, to say the least, doubt- 

 ful. Science may be definite and certain in its laws, but in 

 dealing with the vital functions, and the transformation of food 

 into flesh and blood and bone, actual results sometimes set at 

 naught all the fixed principles of science. No one is more 

 indebted to science than the farmer, and in no department of 

 his labor is its aid more available than in raising and feeding 

 stock. But it should not be forgotten that the chemical labora- 

 tory and the stomach of a live animal are not identical in struc- 

 ture or solvents ; and each may evolve its peculiar products, 

 which, with much in common, may yet have differences that 

 will upset the most careful calculation. 



The conclusion above stated is predicated on the supposition 

 that time is an important element in the calculation : i. e., that 

 the greatest weight of pork is to be made in the shortest time, 

 and that this time comprises the warm months. With the ordi- 

 nary imperfect conveniences for cooking large quantities, and 

 w\i\\ finely ground meal, i\\Q farmer can probably push forward 

 his hogs for an early market to best advantage with uncooked 

 food. 



But where time is no object, and one has a large, convenient 

 boiler, where the only test is the greatest weight of pork from a. 



