180 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



pound of meal, probably the advantage will be in favor of 

 cooked food ; but it will take at least one-third longer time, to 

 say nothing of the trouble and cost of cooking. 



Experiments on a large scale in the West with whole corn on 

 the one hand, and cooked meal on the other, have demonstrated 

 the greatly increased value of the latter. It is generally agreed 

 that the gain is about thirty per cent. 



To bring the three different modes of feeding into direct 

 comparison, the results of three recent experiments are here 

 given : — 



1. Field feeding on ivhole corn. Says a large feeder in Ham- 

 ilton County, Ohio : " As soon as the corn is ripe, I divide my 

 stock of hogs into lots according to condition. Having fenced 

 off about five acres of corn, I turn in the fattest lot, and let 

 them eat till the best part is consumed ; and then put them in 

 a new piece, and let a poorer lot take their place ; and so on till 

 the stock is ready for market — the different lots going off at 

 different times. It takes from two to three months to bring 

 them up to from 175 to 200 pounds live weight. A bushel of 

 corn adds eight pounds to the weight of the animal." 



2. Cooked corn meal, by a successful farmer of Ogle County, 

 Illinois. " I raise the Chester Whites. I can make hogs at 

 eighteen months old average 350 pounds, live weight. From 

 what experience I have had with ground and cooked feed, I am 

 satisfied it is preferable to whole corn by at least four pounds of 

 pork per bushel of corn. I do not, however, confine my hogs to 

 .cooked food entirely, as after eating a full meal of this, they 

 eat whole corn greedily. Hogs are better to moderately salt 

 their jcooked food. I would prefer to let pigs run with the 

 mother until she weans them herself. With good thrifty hogs, 

 I am satisfied I can make fourteen pounds of pork from one 

 bushel of meal. I fattened a pen of twelve hogs last spring, 

 that gained in weight over 100 pounds each in seven weeks, the 

 twelve weighing 3,610 pounds, live weight." 



3. Uncooked corn and oatmeal, by a member of the South 

 Middlesex Society. " I bought four pigs, Mackay and Chester 

 County, in April, at six weeks old. Fed on skimmed milk, 

 with a handful of whole corn to each pig daily, till July 1st ; 

 after which they had meal as they would bear it. The meal 

 was a mixture of two-thirds corn and one-third oats. Fed 



