FARMER'S CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK 



At the Maryland station small sweet 

 potatoes and sweet potato strings were 

 fed alone to hogs. It required about 5 

 tons of the product to produce 100 

 pounds of gain. This gives the sweet 

 potato a value for pig feeding of about 

 60 cents per ton. When the sweet pota- 

 to strings were fed in combination with 

 gluten meal and milk, they made con- 

 siderably better returns and had a feed- 

 ing value of about 40 cents per 100 

 pounds. 



These data show sweet potatoes to 

 have a very low feeding value for hogs. 

 Like other roots, their greatest^ useful- 

 ness will be obtained when fed in small 

 amounts with a liberal allowance of 

 grain in addition. 



Turnips — This crop at the Ontario 

 station was not found profitable when 

 replacing one-half of a mixed meal ra- 

 tion. They were even inferior to corn 

 silage. When fed at the Nevada sta- 

 tion with alfalfa, small gains were 

 made. At another station when sliced 

 turnips constituted two-thirds of the ra- 

 tions fed to hogs, they were used at a 

 loss. 



Conclusions regarding roots — A study 

 of the experiments recorded above in 

 the use of roots for hog feeding, indi- 

 cates that their feeding value is not 

 high, but that they have a marked bene- 

 ficial effect on the digestive organs of 

 animals, enabling hogs to utilize the 

 dry grains fed with them to greater ad- 

 vantage. Eoots act in a manner simi- 

 lar to pasture crops or skim milk. On 

 the whole, it may be calculated that it 

 requires from 400 to 800 pounds of roots 

 to equal 100 pounds of grain in feeding 

 value. They are most useful when fed 

 in small amounts, 2 to 3 pounds per day. 



SOILING HOGS 



Hogs put up in a pen at the Ontario 

 college in summer, and fed for 123 

 days on mixed meal, gained 64 per cent 

 on their first weight. When green fod- 

 der was substituted for one-third the 

 meal ration, the gain of another like lot 

 of hogs was 50 per cent on their first 

 weight, and when fodder cut green and 

 mixed with the meal at feeding was sub- 

 stituted for two-thirds the meal ration, 

 the gain was but 13.4 per cent on the 

 first weight. 



Taking the expense of feeding into 

 account there was a gain in feeding 

 meal alone of 4.56 per cent. From feed- 



ing two-thirds meal and one-third green 

 fodder the gain was 2.71 per cent, and 

 from feeding one-third meal and two- 

 thirds green fodder, there was a loss of 

 27 per cent. From this experiment it 

 is concluded that if bulky fodder has 

 any value as an aid to digestion in fat- 

 tening hogs, it must be fed in a smaller 

 amount than used in this experiment. 

 The green foods used consisted of clover, 

 oats, vetches, corn and millet, in their 

 season, and was cut into half-inch 

 lengths and mixed with the meal in . 

 feeding. 



Vetch and rape — Day, in Canada, se- 

 cured slightly better gains when pigs 

 were fed soiling crops of vetch followed 

 by rape, than when the hogs were pas- 

 tured on these crops. Cummings found 

 soy beans about 10 per cent better for 

 soiling than rape. 



Soiling hogs with alfalfa, at the 

 Oregon station, did not prove satisfac- 

 tory, owing apparently to the tendency 

 of the alfalfa to become woody. Eape 

 and other tender succulence gave satis- 

 factory results. 



In one experiment at the station, 

 Withycombe fed soiling crops of crimson 

 clover and alfalfa to mature hogs for 

 one month, during which time they re- 

 quired 85.5 pounds of green feed, and 

 1.4 pounds of grain mixture for each 

 pound of gain. During the succeeding 

 month it required 328 pounds of green al- 

 falfa to produce a pound of live weight. 

 It is believed much better results would 

 have been secured had the hogs been al- 

 lowed to run on alfalfa pasture. 



Grass — When pigs were fed grass 

 alone in pens without any grain what- 

 ever, they lost in weight V^ pound each 

 per day for a feeding period of 90 days, 

 at the Utah station. When allowed to 

 run in pasture without grain they gained 

 in weight on an average 0.36 pound for 

 three seasons in succession. On an av- 

 erage of four years' experiments at that 

 station pigs confined in pens on full 

 grain rations and given grass in addi- 

 tion gained 1.13 pounds per pig per day. 

 Without the grass the gain was 1.09 

 pounds per day. Pigs having a full 

 grain ration in yards and given grass in 

 addition gained 1.07 pounds per day; 

 without the grass the gain was 1.17 

 pounds per pig per day. This gives the 

 grass, which consisted of about 50 per 

 cent alfalfa, a slight feeding value for 



