518 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—M. 
individual, make it probable that the genetical methods presently used for the purpose 
of securing improvement will give place to others which involve the administration 
of hormones or of physiologically equivalent synthetic chemical substances. Already 
the time of attainment of sexual maturity is more easily controlled by means of 
anterior pituitary than by selective breeding. The sire is no longer essential in 
lactation, and the problem of the scrub bull may thus be solved. 
Dr. C. CrowTrHEeR.—Nutrition and the Pig. 
The steadily growing insistence of the consumer on smaller and leaner cuts of 
meat has in the case of the pig rendered virtually impossible the older methods of 
pig-raising in which the pig was cheaply but slowly grown to maturity and then 
subjected to an intensive fattening process. To secure the class of pig now mainly 
in demand for meat purposes, growth and fattening must proceed simultaneously, 
the animal being marketed long before it has attained maximum growth. Fat 
production may be regarded as relatively simple to control, and research therefore 
has tended to concentrate mainly upon the problem of securing quick growth. 
Attention has been directed in particular to the questions of protein requirements at 
various stages of growth and of the extent to which mineral and vitamin deficiencies 
are likely to assume practical importance. 
The Cambridge measurements of the basal metabolism of the pig have now 
furnished the basis for more precise estimates of the energy requirements of the pig 
for different purposes. 
Recent British and Scandinavian work are substantially in agreement in indicating 
as adequate a rather lower level of protein requirements than has hitherto been 
postulated. The only mineral deficiencies that commonly need be provided for are 
those of calcium and chlorine. The pig would appear to be relatively resistant to 
vitamin deficiencies, and only in extreme cases do these appear to give rise to trouble 
in farm practice. The nett economic result of the pig-feeding research of recent 
years has been a sensible reduction in costs of production as compared with former 
standard practice. 
Mr. EB. T. Hatnan.—Nutrition and the Hen. 
The foods used for poultry production being similar to those used for pig production, 
the pig and the hen may be regarded as possible competitors in the farm economy. 
So far as the powers of digestibility are concerned, the hen appears as efficient as the 
pig for foods low in fibre. As the fibre in the food increases, the hen becomes less 
efficient than the pig, this lessened efficiency being associated with anatomical — 
differences of the digestive tract and lack of bacterial digestion of fibre due to time — 
relationships of the passage of food through the tract. Rapid egg production, 
associated with lack of food reserve in the body, emphasises the necessity of efficient 
nutrition, including protein and energy requirements, vitamin and mineral require- 
ments, and regulation of the bulk of the food. Evidence is given showing the 
influence of food on yolk colour, the effect of protein on fat production, and the 
influence of sex on body composition. The relative economy of the fowl and the 
pig as food producers is discussed, and evidence is given to show that from the flesh 
standpoint the fowl is just as efficient as the pig, whereas, as an egg producer, the hen 
is much less efficient. j 
Tuesday, September 29. 
Economic ASPECTS OF AGRICULTURE IN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE — 
EMPIRE :— ‘ 
Sir Atpert E. Humpuries.—The Wheat Position and Outlook. 
Many years ago Joseph Chamberlain pointed out that if there be a demand for — 
ten articles of one kind and eleven are produced, the price of the whole is reduced 
by an amount quite out of proportion to the surplus. This seems to be the case in — 
respect of wheat. To some extent the price of wheat depends on the cost of other — 
commodities for which the excess supply of wheat may be substituted. In this way — 
the concurrent supplies and values of rye, rice, maize and barley affect the price of 
