Feeding and Care of Pigs 151 



especially the legumes and Dwarf Essex rape, contain 

 liberal amounts of protein and mineral matter. The new 

 growth of the ordinary cereal crops like oats, rye,- and 

 barley are very much richer in these growing constituents, 

 also, than the same crops at maturity. Provision for 

 such crops, consequently, means a smaller cash outlay 

 for such feeds as tankage, meat-meal, shorts, middlings, 

 or oil-meal, and the more exclusive and larger use of corn 

 or other home-grown grains. The hog-man is, therefore, 

 made more independent of outside sources of feed supply. 



6. Access to forage crops insures that the droppings 

 will be left where the land is certain to receive the full 

 benefits from the fertility contained. Contrasted with 

 the results of dry-lot feeding, where the droppings are 

 allowed to accumulate and waste away in the barnyard, 

 and to become a source of filth, infection, and disease, 

 this system effects a large and an increasingly important 

 saving. More than 85 per cent ^ of the fertility of the 

 feed eaten by a fattening pig is recovered in the manure. 

 Henry and Morrison ^ have calculated that the fertility 

 value of the manure produced by a 1000 pounds of pigs 

 in one year has a value exceeding $38, when the nitrogen 

 is valued at 18 cents, phosphoric acid at 4.5 cents, and 

 potash at 5 cents a pound. According to these figiu-es, 

 the actiial fertility value of the droppings produced by 

 an average pig during the summer would be about $2. 

 Feeding pigs on forage is a sure and certain method of 

 increasing rapidly the fertility of the land on which they 

 graze. 



7. Finally, forage crops mean improved sanitary con- 

 ditions for the pigs. If for no other reason, all so-called 



' Warington : " Chemistry of the Farm," page 214. 

 » " Feeds and Feeding," page 279. 



