FEEDING RATIONS. 



art of feeding and fattening swine. These animals are 

 so nearly omnivorous, and so well adapted to all 

 kinds of treatment, that they sometimes achieve re- 

 sults apparently out of theoretical bounds. They have 

 frequently been known to live and apparently thrive on 

 both excessively narrow and excessively wide rations, 

 but best results never follow unscientific practices. 



A narrow ratio is where the carbohydrates ( sugars 

 and starches) are decreased, and a wide ratio is where 

 they are increased, as compared to the normal amount 

 or proportion of protein. Skim-milk and cottonseed 

 meal are illustrations of narrow ratios, and corn and 

 silage of wide ratios. The term nutritive ratio may be 

 just as properly used in connection with a single 

 article of food as with a food compounded of several 

 ingredients : 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF NARROW AND WIDE RATIOS. 





Of course the same feeding stuff will vary, partic- 

 ularly such a thing as silage. The development of the 

 ears would make it a more valuable food than when 

 cut in an immature state. Skim-milk varies widely in 

 composition, as every farmer well knows. 



It is folly on the one hand to feed nothing but 

 skim-milk, with its narrow ratio of i : 2, or nothing but 



