404 MANUAL OF CATTLE-FEE DING. 



§3. SWINB. 



Quantity of Fodder. — Tlie amount of fodder consume 1 

 by swine, in comparison with other animals, is very large- 

 "When tolerably full-grown swine are fattened, they con- 

 sume at tirst a great quantity of fodder, amounting, poi 

 1,000 lbs. live-weight, to upward of 40 lbs. of dry matter 

 per day, and they increase in weight with corresponding 

 rapidity. 



As they grow fatter, however, the consumption dimin- 

 ishes continually, and finally becomes hardly greater than 

 that of fattennig cattle or sheep. This fact is shown still 

 more strikingly when, as is usually the case, the swine 

 receive full fattening fodder as soon as they are weaned, 

 and reach in the first }ear a weight of some 300 lbs. per 

 head. Under these circumstances, when the fodder is a 

 suitable one and the animals belong to a breed capable of 

 easy fattening, an increase of 100 lbs. in the live-weight 

 may be obtained by about 400 lbs. of dry matter in the 

 fodder, on the average, or by 300-— 400 lbs. in the first 

 months and 400—500 lbs. in the later months — a fact 

 which has been exemplified by numerous experiments in 

 Weidlitz, Ivuschen, Pommritz, Ilohenheim, and elsewhere. 

 Older animals, however, seem to need more fodder for 

 an equal production. As much as 500 — 600 lbs. of dry 

 matter appears to be necessary to produce an increase of 

 100 lbs. in the Hve- weight of mature swine. 



Feeding Standards.— The fattening of mature swine 

 may be, for convenience, divided into three periods, as is 

 done in the table of feeding standards in the Appendix; 

 but it will be noticed that the nutritive ratio is gradually 

 made wider with the advance of the fattening, while the 

 total qxiantity both of dry matter and of real nutrients ic 



