CHAPTER NINETEEN. 



PRACTICAL FEEDS AND FEEDING. 



Under this head comes tankage, which is the by-product' 

 of the packing house, made up from various waste pro- 

 ducts steamed to a high degree of heat, after which the 

 liquid is drawn off and the residue dried and ground into 

 a fine meal. Meat meal is practically the same thing only 

 wholly made from meat scraps. Both of these feeds are 

 extremely high in protein, which is a very necessary ele- 

 ment combined with other feeds to make up a balanced 

 ration. 



Prom 5 to 10 per cent of 60 per cent protein tankage is 

 generally sufficient to balance a corn ration for swine. I 

 have mentioned the use of tankage in several places in this 

 book. 



There is another variety of meat meal which the writer 

 has used quite extensively. It is purchased from the 

 large butcher shops, or from the small packing house near 

 home where a few hundred hogs are slaughtered daily, 

 and is known as "cracklings," being the compressed part 

 of the fat after the lard is pressed out by hydraulic pres- 

 sure, and usually comes in cakes of about 125 lbs. each. 

 We purchase these cakes half a ton or a ton at a time, break 

 them up into small pieces with an axe and run the broken 

 pieces through our steel burr grinder, making a finely 

 ground article of pure scrap meat. We add about five per 

 cent of this to a pig's ration, and it is certainly relished by 

 pigs of any age. It keeps the bowels open and in nice 

 condition, makes the hair glossy and is of great value. 



Hogging Down Corn. 



Some farmers and perhaps breeders of pure-breds, prac- 

 tice the custom of "hogging down" a field of corn. If this 

 is to be done — and it is a good custom — it would be a very 



