THE PIG. 473 



There has been a great variety of opinions expressed 

 upon the value of the cob-meal, many supposing it to be 

 injurious to the coatings of the stomach, even in horses, 

 and the pig's stomach has been thought by some as inca- 

 pable of managing such hard material as the scales of cob ; 

 but we long since experimented with corn and cob-meal, 

 and found all these adverse opinions merely imaginary. 

 We have fed it largely both to swine and horses, and never 

 saw any ill effects from it, but, on the contrary, found it a 

 healthier feed than clear meal. The advantage of grinding 

 the cob and corn together is not altogether in the nutri- 

 ment of the cob, but because the cob, being a coarser and a 

 spongy material, gives bulk, and divides and separates the 

 fine meal, so as to allow a free circulation of the gastric 

 juice through the mass in the stomach. Corn-meal, when 

 wet into plastic dough, is very solid, and not easily pene- 

 trated by any liquid; and when pigs are fed wholly on 

 corn-meal, they often suffer with fever in the stomach, be- 

 cause the meal lies there too long undigested. 



We will here give the experiment of two farmers' clubs 

 in Connecticut, to show the value of corn-meal, corn and 

 cob-meal, and whole corn. We condense it to the essen- 

 tial facts. 



A committee of the two farmers' clubs appointed to make 

 the experiment, purchased nine thrifty shoats and divided 

 them as evenly as possible into three lots, placing three in 

 each of three separate pens. The experiment began the 

 first of April, and ended the sixth of June. 



Lot No. 1 was fed 1,332 pounds of corn ground into 

 meal clear meal, wet in pure water. Lot No. 2 was fed 

 1,361 pounds of corn and cob-meal, wet up in water. Lot 

 No. 3 was fed 1,192 pounds of corn soaked in water. 



Kesults : Lot No. 1 weighed at the beginning of the ex- 

 periment, 453 pounds; at slaughtering, 760 pounds; gain 

 in live weight, 307 pounds ; dressed weight, 615K pounds. 



