530 



FARMER'S CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK 



m comparison with the same grains 

 without mangels for hogs. The lot re- 

 ceiving the mangels ate less food and 

 made smaller gains at a greater cost than 

 where no roots were fed. 



At the Central experimental farm at 

 Ottawa, mangels have been found of 

 considerable value as a winter food for 

 stock hogs. They have also been fed to 

 fattening hogs without any injurious 

 effect on the quality of pork produced. 

 See also sugar beets for comparative 

 tests. 



Potatoes — This crop when fed to hogs 

 is usually given cooked, since hogs relish 

 them to a greater extent in this form, 

 and make better use of them. The crop 

 is too valuable usually to grow as a 

 pasture crop for hogs, but it is a fre- 

 quent practice with farmers to utilize 

 the small tubers by cooking them and 

 mixing them with ground corn meal or 

 other ground grain. 



At the New York Cornell station, 

 Clinton fed potatoes both raw and 

 cooked to hogs, which received at the 

 same time a light ration of skim milk 

 and grain, in addition. Over 400 pounds 

 of potatoes were thus fed but the pigs 

 made no gains, due it is thought, to a 

 low temperature, ranging between 29 

 and 30° E. 



At the Oregon station well-cooked po- 

 tatoes formed part of the ration in one 

 of the station experiments. Pigs weigh- 

 ing 175 pounds each were fed 12.4 

 pounds of potatoes and 2.8 pounds of 

 shorts per day per head and made a 

 daily gain of 1.3 pounds. Another like 

 lot of hogs consumed 6.8 pounds of 

 mixed grain per day and made a daily 

 gain of 1.8 pounds. This shows that 

 the extra 4 pounds of grain fed to the 

 second lot of pigs more than counter- 

 balanced the 12.4 pounds of potatoes fed 

 to the first lot. 



In another experiment at the station, 

 100 pounds of cooked potatoes, fed as a 

 part of the ration, had a value of 21 to 

 31 pounds of wheat or 27 pounds of 

 barley. 



Experiments with hogs at the Wiscon- 

 sin station indicate that it requires 

 about 4.4 pounds of cooked potatoes to 

 equal in feeding value 1 pound of corn 

 meal. At that station, 1 bushel of corn 

 was equal to 4.5 bushels of potatoes. 

 Professor Henry holds that potatoes 

 should be cooked before feeding. 



The Minnesota station found that 



potatoes were no more digestible when 

 cooked than when raw, but that pigs ate 

 more cooked potatoes than raw ones. 



At the Ottawa experiment station, po- 

 tatoes either raw or cooked, were unsat- 

 isfactory rations for hogs. Even when 

 fed with skim milk, grain had to be 

 added in order to make satisfactory 

 gains. At the Central experimental 

 farm, also, potatoes fed raw have proved 

 of but little value. When cooked they 

 were about one-fourth as valuable as 

 mixed grain. 



The experiment on the whole goes to 

 show that in feeding potatoes to hogs 

 they should be cooked and fed with 

 grain and that the best results are se- 

 cured when only a small portion of the 

 ration is made up of potatoes. 



Pumpkins — The New Hampshire sta- 

 tion reports that pumpkins fed with 

 corn meal and milk have considerable 

 feeding value for hogs, and are about 

 equally valuable raw or cooked. On the 

 other hand, the Ottawa station found 

 cooked pumpkins more satisfactory for 

 hogs than raw pumpkins, and reports 

 that pigs made exceedingly economical 

 gains on rations containing pumpkins. 



The average of experiments at the 

 Ottawa, Oregon and New Hampshire 

 stations in feeding pumpkins, show that 

 it required 273 pounds of grain and 276 

 pounds of pumpkins (raw) to make 100 

 pounds of gain in hogs. When the pump- 

 kins were cooked it required 222 pounds 

 of grain and 1,150 pounds of pumpkins 

 for each 100 pounds of gain. 



These results rather favor feeding the 

 pumpkins raw and preferably mixed with 

 corn meal. 



When pumpkins were used for hogs at 

 the Oregon station, they were first cut 

 up, the seeds removed and the pieces 

 thoroughly cooked. The pigs were in- 

 duced to eat as much pumpkin as they 

 would and the ration then filled out 

 with shorts. In two months' time, pigs 

 eight months old gained 125 pounds 

 each on this ration, consuming about 13 

 pounds of pumpkins, and 1.9 pounds of 

 grain per pound of gain at a cost of 2.9 

 cents. These gains were entirely satis- 

 factory and the meat produced on pump- 

 kins was of excellent quality. 



Sugar beets — The value of sugar beets 

 as pasture for hogs fed grain in addi- 

 tion, was found at the Michigan station 

 to be $37.77 per acre, and for sugar beets 

 and mangels, half and half, $39.60 per 



