510 



Feeds and Feeding. 



4 weeks 418 lbs. of feed produced 100 lbs. of gain. During the 

 second 4 weeks 461 lbs. feed, or 10 per ct. more, was required for 

 100 lbs. of gain, and during the last 4 weeks 559 lbs. or 33 per ct. 

 more than was required during the first 4 weeks. 



Influence of the length of the fattening period on the rate of gain. 



831. Effects of feed on teeth and skull.— Schwartzkopff of the 

 Minnesota Station,^ treating of the influence of feed upon the forma- 

 tion of the skull and the dentition of pigs, writes: 



"1. The order of succession of teeth in our precocious pigs runs 

 the same as in the primitive hog. 



"2. The times when the teeth appear are variable, according to 

 race, feeding, and health. The same breeds raised under the same 

 conditions will show the same appearance. 



"3. The form of the skull depends upon nutrition, health, and 

 more or less employment of certain muscles of the head and neck. 

 Skulls of poorly nourished pigs are more long and slender than from 

 those well nourished. Pigs which are prevented from rooting will 

 acquire a short, high, and rounded head, while those that are forced 

 to root to secure a portion of their food will develop a long and 

 slender form of head." 



832. Length of intestines. — Darwin- states that the nature of the 

 food supplied the pig by man has evidently changed the length of 

 the intestines. He quotes Cuvier as reporting the total length of the 

 intestines of the wild boar to be 9 times the body length; in the 

 domestic boar 13.5 to 1; in the Siam boar 16 to 1. The writer^ 



1 Bui. 7 ; Breeder 's Gazette, 1889, pp. 536-7. ' Ept. Wis. Expt. Sta., 1889. 



° Animals and Plants under Domestication. 



