FEEDING SWINE 295 
for converting feeding stuffs into human food, and he often does it 
under very adverse conditions as regards care and attention, and 
without being particular as to either the character of the feed or 
the quarters he occupies. No farm animal appreciates good feed 
and comfortable quarters, however, or responds more readily to 
good treatment, than do swine, but none are more abused in these 
respects. The pig isan omnivorous eater and can fatten on feed that 
other stock will not touch, but the best results in feeding pigs, as in 
the case of other farm animals, are secured when they receive 
good, wholesome feed and are given careful attention. Under 
these conditions, swine raising is especially profitable, and while 
it requires a smaller investment in animals and equipment, it will, 
as a rule, yield quicker and relatively larger results than any other 
branch of animal husbandry. 
Fie. 71.—A group of young Berkshire pigs. (Iddings.) 
Swine are remarkable producers of fat (Fig. 71). The com- 
position of the increase in body weight in the case of fattening 
swine, as determined by Lawes and Gilbert, is as follows: Protein, 
1.4 per cent; fat, 71.5 per cent; mineral matter, 0.1 per cent; water, 
22.0 per cent, showing that the fattening process in the case of 
these animals, still more than with other fattening stock, consists 
largely of an accumulation of body fat (p. 20). 
Birth Weight and Gains Made by Pigs.—Pigs, when far- 
rowed, will weigh from about one and a half to three pounds each ; 
two and a half pounds may be considered an average weight for our 
common, medium-sized breeds. The number of pigs‘in a litter will 
average about nine. Young pigs ordinarily gain more for every week 
as they grow older, but there is a gradual decrease in the rate of 
gain to body weight. The largest returns for the amount of feed 
