FEEDING SWINE 315 



pounds live weight ; they should be only moderately fat, and a firm 

 quality of fat is essential in a first-grade article. Soft bacon is a 

 serious defect and is produced by a variety of causes. These have 

 been summarized as follows by Day : 25 



" 1. Lack of Maturity. Generally speaking, the more immature a hog 

 is, the greater the tendency to be soft. Almo:t invariably the largest per- 

 centage of softness occurs among the light sides of bacon. 



" 2. Lack of Finish. Thin hogs have a marked tendency to produce soft 

 bacon. Marketing hogs before they are linished is, no doubt, responsible for 

 a great deal of softness. 



" 3. Unthriftiness in hogs, no matter what the cause may be, almost in- 

 variably produces soft bacon. 



" 4. Lack of exercise has a tendency to produce softness, but this ten- 

 dency can be largely overcome by judicious feeding. 



" 5. Exclusive meal feeding is, perhaps, one of the most common causes 

 of softness, especially when hogs are not given exercise. Some kinds of 

 meal are more injurious than others, but wherever exclusive meal feeding 

 is practised and the exercise is limited, more or less softness is always sure 

 to result. 



" G. Corn. Of the grains in common use, corn has the greatest tendency 

 Lo produce softness. Its injurious tendency can be modified by mixing it 

 largely with other meal or by feeding skim milk, green feed, and roots, but 

 its tendency to produce softness is so strong that it must be regarded as an 

 undesirable food for bacon hogs. . . . 



" 7. Beans seem to have more marked effect than corn in producing soft- 

 ness, and should not be used for finishing bacon hogs." 



Barley and skim milk make the best combination for bacon pro- 

 duction, and may be fed in the ratio of 1 to 3 or 1 to 5. These feeds 

 will produce large gains and a good quality of meat ; other valuable 

 feeds are peas, linseed meal, fine-ground oats and tankage. Clover, 

 alfalfa, or rape will furnish large and satisfactory returns in summer 

 with barley, shorts, and a small amount of skim milk. Winter feed- 

 ing is also practised where roots are available either mangels or 

 sugar beets; they should be supplemented by skim milk and barley 

 or wheat, with some linseed meal or tankage. 



QUESTIONS 



1. How do pigs rank in relation to other farm animals as producers of 



human food? 



2. Give the average birth weight of pigs. 



3. State the average amount of feed eaten daily by pigs of different weights 



and the feed per 100 pounds gain for pigs of 'different live weights. 



4. What, if any, is the advantage of grinding, cooking and soaking feed for 



swine ? 



5. Describe the use of Indian corn in swine feeding. 

 G. How can swine be fed for fat and for lean? 



7. Discuss briefly the value of dairy products and of pasture for swine 

 feeding. 



25 '"Productive Swine Husbandry," p. 134. 



