486 FEEDING ANIMALS. 



40 bushels per acre. He then selected from the lot 100 

 hogs, averaging 200 pounds each, placed them in large 

 covered pens, with plank floors and troughs, and fed them 

 upon corn-meal, ground in the ear, and well steamed. At 

 the end of a week they were weighed, and found to have 

 gained 20 pounds for each 70 pounds of cob-meal the 

 weather being warm for the season. The first week in No- 

 vember (the weather being much colder) these hogs gained 

 only 15 pounds to the 70 pounds of steamed meal ; the third 

 week of the same month (the weather being still colder) 

 they gained only 10 pounds per bushel, and the next week 

 (it getting still colder) they only gained 6^ pounds per 

 bushel. This lot was then sold ; and he selected another 

 and fed in December. The weather being about the same 

 as in November, they gained 6M pounds per bushel. This 

 lot was weighed again the middle of January, and the corn 

 fed during a week only increased their weight 1M pounds 

 per bushel the thermometer being down to zero. Another 

 week, on being weighed, they just held their own ; the tem- 

 perature being from one to ten below zero. 



This experiment is a fair representation of the effect of 

 temperature upon the thrift of fattening hogs. When very 

 cold, the hog can only eat enough to keep up animal heat, 

 and the food, producing no gain, is thrown away. It must 

 thus be seen that postponing the fattening till winter is very 

 bad economy, and unless the swine-house can be kept at a 

 temperature of about 60 there can be no profit in winter- 

 feeding. This it is not difficult to do ; and no large feeder 

 can properly excuse himself on the ground of cost or econ- 

 omy, for his losses from cold in a single winter would build 

 and equip a swine-house in which such a temperature could 

 easily be maintained. 



SELECTING PIGS FOR FATTENING. 



Many of our Western readers buy the pigs they feed, in- 

 stead of raising them, which may be necessary in some 



