1886.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 23 



Feeding Experiments with Pigs. 



In the Second Annual Report, page 68-78 (Bulletin No. 

 13), has been described the first of a series of feeding exper- 

 iments with pigs (May 21 to Sept. 22, 1884), which was 

 planned for the purpose of studying the comparative feeding 

 value of skim milk from the farm and of buttermilk from 

 the Amherst creamery in connection with corn meal, for the 

 production of pork. Equal measures of skim milk and of 

 creamery buttermilk had been fed, with an addition of a 

 corresponding weight of corn meal, in each case. Three 

 ounces of corn meal for every quart of each kind of milk con- 

 sumed formed the basis for the compounding of the entire 

 diet of the (six) animals on trial. The daily amount of feed 

 required was regulated by the appetite of each animal. 



A summary of the results obtained in that connection 

 showed that, — taking corn meal, pound for pound, and skim 

 milk and creamery buttermilk, quart for quart, — practically 

 the same quantity of dressed pork had been obtained in both 

 cases, when stating the final weight of each lot of animals — 

 three in number — in one sum ; 510 pounds where skim milk 

 and meal had been fed, and 514 pounds in the case of butter- 

 milk and meal. Counting in each case the particular feed 

 (milk and meal) with regard to the amount of dry organic 

 matter which it contained, it was noticed that the buttermilk 

 feed had proved — taking pound for pound of dry matter of 

 the mixture — the most nutritious article ; for 24 pounds of 

 dry organic matter contained in the buttermilk and corn 

 meal feed, had produced, as mean results, one pound of 

 dressed pork ; whilst in the case of skim milk and meal, 29 

 pounds of dry organic matter had been spent in the produc- 

 tion of one pound. 



The lot of animals fed with creamery buttermilk and corn 

 meal had also returned a larger profit, even at the rates of 

 the cost of each constituent of the diet rulino; durino; the 

 period of feeding, — May to September, 1884. These results 

 were in so far of special interest as the skim milk from the 

 farm was the more concentrated and richer article of the two 

 kinds of milk fed, according to special chemical analyses 

 made at various times. The skim milk had contained more 



