274 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Nov. 



Experiments in Fattening Swine. 



The last annual Patent Office Report contains 

 the following interesting detail of experiments 

 in feeding swine, [t is from the pen of Hon. 

 H. L. Ellsworth, formerly Commissioner of 

 Patents, but now an extensive farmer at Lafay- 

 ette, Indiana. Emanating from a reliable source, 

 and founded upon careful experiments, the facts 

 given must prove very valuable to all interested 

 in the subject : — 



On the 24th of May, 1847, I purchased four hogs, of the 

 following weights 



both together weighing 

 281 lbs., 8 oz. 



both together weighing 

 277 lbs., 8 oz. 



No. 1 weighed 131 lbs. 4 oz 



" 2 " 150 " 4 " 



" 3 " 157 " 4 " 



" 4 " 120 " 4 " 



I fed to Nos. 1 and 2, each three and a half pounds of 

 Indian meal cooked, making to both seven pounds per day 

 The food I prepered as follows : I took fourteen pounds of 

 meal, enough for two days, wet this with cold water to 

 prevent lumps ; then put it into a five pail iron kettle (full 

 of boiling water, stirring it well,) covered over the kettle 

 with a tight board ; let the mush stand till morning ; put- 

 ting up dampers, the heat of the kettle and arches makes 

 the mass boil for a long time without wood. 



On the eighth of June, fifteen days, 

 No. 1 w^eighed 149 pounds, 13 ounces, a gain of 18 lbs. 9 oz 



" 2 " 165 " 13 " " 15 " 9 " 



Both together having gained 34 pounds 2 oz. in 15 days, 

 and consumed 105 pounds of meal. If pork is worth 3 

 cents per pound gross, the gain in the hogs, viz 34 pounds, 

 2 ounces, is, $1,02, equal to very nearly I cent per pound 

 for the meal, viz. 56 pounds per bushel, say 55 cents per 

 bushel. 



No. 3, as above on the 24th of May, weighed 157 lbs. 4 oz 

 No. 4, " " " " 120 lbs. 4 oz." 



Both together weighing 277 lbs. 8 oz, 



These I fed, on 14 lbs. corn, 7 lbs to each, per day, witli 

 water— on the 8th of June, 15 days. 

 No. 3 weighed 179 pounds, 13 ounces— gain 22 lbs. 9 oz. 

 No. 4 weighed 146 pounds— gain 25 lbs, 12 oz. 

 Together, 48 lbs. 5 oz. in 15 days. 



Both together consumed 210 lbs of corn, just double the 

 quantity of meal fed to the other two. The 48 lbs. 5 oz 

 of pork, at 3 cents per pound gross, amounts to $1,45, 

 making corn worth 38^ cents per bushel of 56 lbs. The hogs 

 had salt, generally in cakes, composed of ashes, 3 parts clay. 

 fHie part saturated with salt, a most excellent mode of .salt- 

 ing all kinds of stock. Those fed on corn drank freely of 

 water. Those that eat mush would rarely drink any. Afte 

 fifteen days the food was changed for twenty days ; those 

 that previously had corn lived on mush, and vice' versa. 

 No. 3 was much affected by the too rapid change from dry 

 oxirn to mush, the stomach having been contracted by 

 digestion, only required by the concentrated nourishment 

 of dry corn, could not bear the sudden extension which 

 mush gave it, each hog having about eight pounds of mush 

 three times per day, equal to 24 pounds per day. Here I 

 may remark, also, what seems incredible, that fourteen 

 pounds of good corn meal, thoroughly cooked, will mako 

 90 pounds of mush, so thick as not to run when taken out 

 of the kettle. In the further experiment I omit No. 3, from 

 the cause above, as being unwell, he did not gain over five 

 pounds in twenty days. His case is added as a caution 

 against too rapid change of diet. I proceed, therefore, 

 with only tlie other three hogs, viz : Nos. 1, 2 and 4 and 

 weighing as follows : ' 



No 1 weighed, on the Sth of June, 149 lbs. 13 oz. ■ on 

 the 28th June, 179 lbs.— gain 29 lbs., 3 oz 



No 2 weighed on the 8lh of June, 165 lbs. 13 oz. : on 

 28th June, 189 lbs.— gain 23 lbs. 3 oz. 



Both together, having gained 52 lbs. 6 oz., in twenty 

 days and consumed, (at the rate of 14 pounds per day,) 

 280 lbs., equal to .52 lbs. Ci oz of pork, at three cents per 

 pound gross, as before, whicli gives $1,.57, equal to thirty- 

 ime cents per bushel. Tiiis gain was less than the other 

 experiment on corn, which is accnunlrd for by the chaage 

 of diet. No. 4, weighed on the 8ili of June, "146 lbs. -^n 

 the 28th of Jnne, 166 lbs.— gain twenty pounds ; just'one 



pound per day. He consumed just seventy pounds of meal 

 cooked— twenty pounds of pork at three cents per pound 

 gros.>=i, amounts to sixty cents ; making the corn ground and 

 cooked worth 48 cents per bushel. 



Had not No. 4 suffered somewhat by a too rapid change 

 of diet from corn to mush, he would, doubtless, have made 

 the second experiment with the meal equal to the first ex- 

 periment. Taking .both experiments together, which is 

 liardly fair, as the change from highly concentrated food to 

 that far more expansive is disadvantageous — more so than 

 from expansive to concentrated raw food is to the cooked 

 food, as 63 to 103, making the gain by cooking, about .55 

 per cent, over uncooked food— or, three bushels of meal 

 cooked, is equal to four and a half bushels of dry, hard 

 corn. It is generally estimated, that if corn is cut up and 

 fed to hogs that fifteen bushels will fatten each one — that 

 is, give one hundred pounds of flesh. If hogs, at gross 

 weight should be worth $3 per hundred, this would mak« 

 corn worth just twenty cents per bushel. The hogs, in 

 this case were not confined in pens. If confined in pens, 

 dry corn is worth thirty cents, and meal, cooked as above, 

 is worth over fifty cents ; so that there is a gain by grinding 

 and cooking, over feeding in the field, of one hundred and 

 fifty per cent. The expenses, however are to be deducted, 

 and these depend on the price of wages, wood and milling. 

 I am about to try Bogardus' mill, which it is said, will, 

 with two horses, grind three hundred buahels of corn and 

 cob in a day. 



I further design to fix the mill so that the meal will 

 foil directly into a tub or vat, where the grist, (corn and 

 cob) can be cooked by steam, supplying the lioiler and 

 tub with water from a spring, making the mu.<h just thin 

 enough to run from the tub into troughs, thus avoiding all 

 labor in drawing water or carrying the food. If one fiftli 

 is deducted for offtil, which is a fair estimate, net pork, at 

 $3,50 per htindred, is about equal to three cents, gross ; or 

 it is, as two hundred and eighty is to three hundred. 



I am about making further experiments to test the value 

 of feeding corn on the stalk, after being cut up, and also by 

 turning hogs into the field. My present impression is, that 

 the most profitable way to feed corn, all things considered, 

 is to cut the corn as soon as it begins to turn hard ; then 

 hogs will eat corn, cob and stalk ; then, too, the weather is 

 mild, and swine will thrive much faster in September, Oo- 

 Ootober and November, than in December, January and 

 February. 



Where land is cheap and easily tilled, and labor dear, as 

 in the west, it may be best to make hogs their own har- 

 vesters. Thus, prepare clover, oats, early corn and buck- 

 wheat, and let hogs eat them in succession. Rye, also, 

 may be raised. The advantages of rye for stock have been 

 underrated. It is a better improver of land, if fed off than 

 oats ; its roots are thicker and grow deeper : it affords nour- 

 ishment, (if sown in August,) from November until tlie 

 autumn of the following year. Young, green rye has ont^ 

 great advantage over green wheat or green oats : the two 

 last are apt to scour stock, while rye is more nourishing 

 without the relaxing qualities. Some highly respectable 

 farmers prefer rye to clover. One thing is certain, rye can 

 be sowed upon new land successfully, when clover would 

 fail— rye can be scattered before the last plowing of corn ; 

 in this way calves can be wintered cheaper than in any 

 other manner. Hogs will thrive remarkably well on green 

 rye, and fatten on it when ripe. Taking, therefore, all 

 things into consideration, rye should be placed much higher 

 than it now is, in the comparative scale of valuable fodder 

 plants. But to return to the subject of field feeding of hogs. 

 I mentioned the preparation of various crops, as clover, 

 oats, early corn and buckwheat, to be fed upon in succe»- 

 sion by the sw ine. These crops will last till the ordinary 

 field corn is ripe enough. If a moveable fence is provideij 

 to confine the hogs to a small quantity, little is lost by field 

 feeding, unless the weather is wet, when so much will be 

 trampl(>d in, that it is advisable to feed corn cut up and 

 carried to a dry lot where there is water. There is a gen- 

 eral mistake in putting in oats too late. It is well to plow 

 the ground in the fall, when work on the farm does not 

 press, and then seize the first moment to harrow in the 

 oats in the spring. If peas are added to the oats, as was 

 practiced on the North Kiver, N. Y., when pork was the 

 great staple there, it would be an improvement at the west. 

 \ great error likewise I as been committed in giving hogs 

 too much age. At the west, hogs average over twenty 

 months, thus subjecting the owner to the expense of win- 



