122 SOUTHERN PORK PRODUCTION 



Our carbohydrate supply. For many years our investi- 

 gators in feeding and nutrition have realized that the 

 deficiency of feeding nutrients in the South was not pro- 

 tein, but was in carbohydrates. This is the reverse of 

 the condition in the Corn Belt, where corn supplies an 

 abundance of carbohydrates and where proteins are 

 naturally scarce. Fortunately, an adequate protein 

 supply is more important than an adequate carbohydrate 

 supply, so that while we have a problem, it cannot be 

 considered with the same gravity as the protein supply of 

 the Corn Belt. We must not feed too narrow a ration 

 and must feed some carbohydrates. Corn will supply 

 some. Sweet potatoes, chufas, molasses, saccharine and 

 non-saccharine sorghums will supply some, and, in addi- 

 tion, legumes and all other feeds contain appreciable 

 quantities of carbohydrates. 



Too much corn not profitable. In those sections of the 

 South where corn can be grown to advantage, a mistake 

 has been often made of feeding a ration to hogs restricted 

 almost entirely to corn. Corn has always been considered 

 a valuable feed for swine, and so it is, but we too often 

 fail to realize that to obtain the maximum value from it, 

 it must be properly supplemented. t As many as a dozen 

 experiments have been tried at the several experiment 

 stations in testing the value of corn alone and with corn 

 supplemented. All have agreed that a ration of corn 

 alone was not profitable and that production was obtained 

 at a greatly reduced figure by properly supplementing the 

 corn with a food rich in nitrogen and mineral matter. In 

 several instances, notably at the Kansas Station, the pigs 

 died on rations of corn alone. The supplements that were 

 found most valuable were the legumes, and by their use, 



