468 FEEDING ANIMALS. 



ing it away. It must be remembered that whey is 93 per 

 cent, water, and, if it were a well balanced food, the water 

 is in too great proportion for the health of animals. If 

 grass were 93 per cent, water it would be likely to produce 

 disease. But the whey when mixed with dry food becomes 

 a healthy ration. The study of the farmer should be to 

 make the most of everything. 



GRASS AS A PART OF THE RATION. 



We have before spoken of the pig as a grass-eating animal, 

 and this part of its nature must not be overlooked. Great 

 losses occur every year by confining pigs to concentrated 

 food alone. It is doing no greater violence to the nature 

 of the horse to feed him wholly upon grain than the pig. 

 In a natural state both are supported upon grass. In the 

 winter, hay is substituted for grass with the horse, and no 

 one expects a horse to be healthy without a certain proportion 

 of fibrous food ; and we have no more reason to expect the 

 pig to be healthy and vigorous in digestion and without a 

 small percentage of bulky fibrous food. The rule, in feeding 

 all animals, should be, to follow Nature as closely as possible. 

 We have tried several experiments to test the natural system 

 of feeding grass as a part of the ration, supplemented by 

 grain, in connection with the system of pure grain-feeding. 

 Some of these experiments have been published before, but 

 they will bear repeating. 



A litter of six pigs were weaned at five weeks old, and 

 divided into two lots of three each and of equal weight. 

 Each lot was put into a separate pen on the first day of June. 

 One lot was fed wholly upon corn-meal soaked twelve hours 

 in cold water, and given ad libitum. The other lot had a 

 small portion of green clover, cut short with a straw-cutter, 

 and mixed with corn-meal. Only one quart of this cut 

 clover was given at first to each pig, with all the meal it 

 would eat. This meal being mixed with clover, had its par- 



