AGRICULl'URAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 105 



(3.) The advantage of a nitrogenous food in the ration 

 seems to pertain to the fattening period as well as to the 

 period of growth. A mixture of pea meal and corn meal or of 

 gluten meal and corn meal, proved to be greatly more efficient 

 than corn meal alone in feeding animals already well g;own 

 and quite fat. The relative growth was from twenty to sixty 

 per cent, in favor of the ration containing one of the nitroge- 

 nous foods. When we consider that over 70 per cent, of the 

 weight added to the toody of a fattening hog is fat, while only 

 6.5 per cent, is lean meat,* the favorable influence (at least 

 indirect) of a liberal supply of protein upon fat production 

 is very apparent. 



(4.) Nitrogenous vegetable foods seemed to exert a favor- 

 able influence upon the growth of swine similar to that of 

 skimmed milk. Moreover, the digestible matter of pea meal 

 and of skimmed milk proved to have a nutritive value practi- 

 cally equivalent. 



(5.) No marked efiect was exerted upon growth by a wide 

 variation in the amount of drink given to the two lots of ani- 

 mals. Pigs weighing but little over 109 pounds took approxi- 

 mately seven quarts of water daily and made but slightly 

 less gain than animals of the same size drinking only half as 

 much. 



(6.) When skimmed milk is substituted for part of a ration 

 of corn meal without changing the amount of digestible dry 

 matter fed, the efficiency of the ration was greatly increased. 

 A still further substitution of milk for me4l appeared not to 

 materially increase the rate of growth. For instance, a ration 

 one third the nutrients of which were furnished by skimmed 

 milk in a single trial proved to be worth practically as much 

 as a ration two-thirds of the nutrients of which came from 

 skimmed milk. 



In the latter case some milk simply replaced corn meal 

 in the ratio of 8 pounds of milk to 1 pound of meal, which 

 is almost the exact ratio of equal quantities of digestible 

 material. 



* Shown by Lawes & Gilbert with eighty iiiumals. 



