CHAPTER XL 

 COMMON PRACTICE OF FEEDING. 



FEEDS. 



In the common practice of swine feeding hogs are sup- 

 plied with feeds of which there are a large variety, as in- 

 dicated by the table in the preceding chapter. A hog is 

 required to take these feeds, and convert them into the 

 tissues of his body. The gap between the raw feeds and 

 the finished product in the form of animal tissues is very 

 great. The processes necessary for such operations 

 would be comparable to the building of a frame house 

 from the trees of the forest. An ordinary house contains 

 several classes of material such as soft wood and hard 

 wood. In order to supply this, pine trees and oak trees 

 may be used. Before the house can be built, these trees 

 must be cut down, sawed into logs, taken to the saw- 

 mill and cut up into lumber, and this must then be 

 finished and made into various forms in different ways 

 to get it into proper shape for use in the construction of 

 the house. It would be a rather crude process for a car- 

 penter to build such a house from only the trees of the 

 forest. If a large number of houses were to be built, it 

 would be possible to select trees properly so as to have 

 the right proportion between the amount of soft and hard 

 wood, but the carpenter is not supplied with the necessary 

 manufacturing processes to render the material in the raw 

 state suitable for use in house construction. 



The stomach of the hog is the manufacturing plant for 

 the animal. It takes the raw material, or the feeds as 



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