2 

 NOTES ON FEEDING EXPERIMENTS WITH PIGS. 



34S, I" Bulletin No. 13 has been described the first of a series of 

 feeding experiiueiits witli pigs, wliicli were planned for the purpose of 

 studying tiie comparative feeding value ol skim milk from the farm, 

 and of buttermilk from the Amherst Creamery, in connection with 

 corn meal, for the production of pork. Equal measures of skim milk 

 and of creamery buttermilk had been fed with an addition of a cor- 

 responding weight of corn meal, in each case. Three ounces of corn 

 meal for every quart of each kind of milk consumed formed the basis 

 for the compounding of the entire diet of the isix) animals on trial. 

 The daily amount of feed required was regulated by the appetite of 

 each animal. 



A sumnuiry of the results obtained m that connection showed that 

 — taking corn meal pound for pound, and skim milk and creamery 

 butteruulk quart for quart — practically the same quantity of dressed 

 pork had been obtained in both cases when stating the tinal weight of 

 each lot of animals— three m number — in one sum ; 510 pounds where 

 skun milk and meal had been fed, and 514 pounds in the case of but- 

 termilk and meal. Counting in each case the particular feed (milk 

 and meal) with regard to the amount of dry organic matter^ which it 

 contauietl, it was noticed that the buttermilk feed had proved — taking- 

 pound lor pound of dry matter of the mixture — the most nutritious 

 article ; for 2.4 pounds of dry organic matter contained in the butter- 

 milk and corn meal feed, had i)r(»duced, as mean results, one pound 

 of dressed pork, whilst in the case o( skim milk and meal, 2.9 pounds 

 of dry organic matter had been spent in tlie production of one 

 pouud. 



The lot of auunals fed with creamer}' buttermilk and corn meal had 

 also returned a larger proht, even at the rates of the cost of each 

 constituent of the diet, ruling during the period of feeding — May to 

 September, 1884. These results were in so far of special interest as 

 the skim milk from the farm was the more concentrated and richer 

 article of the two kinds of milk fed, according to special chemical 

 analyses made at various times ; the skim milk had contained more 

 than 20 per cent, more dry organic matter than the creamery buttei-- 

 milk. This circumstance seemed to indicate a waste of skim milk, 

 as compared with the results obtained iu case of the former. As the 

 skim milk was the most costly article of the feed, a waste of that 

 article cannot otherwise but seriously aftect the cost of the dressed 

 pork obtained by its use. 



lu our first experiment — 1884 — the corn meal was charged $28 per 

 ton at the mill ; creamery buttermilk, 1.37 cts. per gallon, the contrac- 

 tor's price ; and farm skim milk, 2 cents asked for at the farm. Cost 

 of feed per pound of dressed pork at these rates amounted in case ot 

 the creamery milk feed to 4.6 cts., and iu case of the farm skim milk 

 feed to 5.8 cents per pound. 



