170 RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS IN SWINE FEEDING 



ration, and they show to best advantage when used to 

 lighten and give more bulk to a heavy, close-textured meal, 

 such as pea meal, or even corn meal. They are especially 

 useful for making up part of the ration of boars or breeding 

 sows, where the aim is to maintain vigor without unduly 

 fattening. 



Rye. Extensive Danish experiments, summarized by Pro- 

 fessor Henry in " Feeds and Feeding," indicate that rye and 

 barley are about equal in value for pig feeding. Very little 

 experimental work with the grain of this cereal has been done 

 in America. Rye meal is best fed in combination with other 

 kinds of meal. 



Kafir. At the Kansas Experiment Station, it was found 

 that corn meal had a feeding value of from 17 to 29 per cent 

 higher than kafir meal. The addition of soy-bean meal to kafir 

 to the extent of one-third of the ration materially improved its 

 value, but did not make it equal to a similar mixture of corn 

 meal and soy-bean meal. (Fig. 43.) 



Buckwheat. The Central Experimental Farm, Canada, re- 

 ports two trials in which buckwheat was compared with wheat. 

 In the first trial, ground buckwheat was fed against ground 

 wheat, and in this trial 445 pounds of ground buckwheat were 

 required for 100 pounds gain, and 410 pounds ground wheat 

 for 100 pounds gain. 



In the second trial, one lot of pigs was fed a mixture of 

 one-half ground buckwheat and one-half mixed meal, and the 

 other lot a mixture of one-half ground wheat and one-half 

 mixed meal. In this trial it required 405 pounds of the buck- 

 wheat mixture for 100 pounds of gain, and 380 pounds of 

 the wheat mixture for 100 pounds of gain. This is a much 

 better showing for buckwheat than might be expected, since 

 buckwheat has a thick, fibrou ! s hull which the hog cannot digest. 



