1909.] Suggestions for Pig-Feeders. 



727 



has long been established, but in the United States maize has 

 been found superior to barley. On the other hand, Danish 

 and British practice has placed barley meal in the front rank 

 as a food for fattening and finishing-off pigs, especially for 

 bacon. Canadian experimental work supports this view.* 

 The best results are obtained from barley meal when fed in 

 combination with pea meal or middlings, while it gives 

 excellent results with roots or lucerne. 



In the following experiments barley and maize are com- 

 pared, f In the winter of 1906-7, at the North Dakota Experi- 

 ment Station, twelve pigs about eight months old were 

 divided into two lots of six and fed for 83 days on rations 

 composed of (1) barley four parts and shorts one part, and 

 (2) maize four parts and shorts one part. The results may be 

 summarised as follows : — 





Average 

 weight at 

 beginning. 



Average 

 weight at 

 end. 



Average 

 total grain 

 consumed. 



A verage 

 daily gain. 



__ 



Average 

 grain per 

 1 lb. gain. 





lb. 



lb. 



lb. 



lb. 



lb. 



Lot No, I (barley) . 



136-3 



2 3 8-6 



588-8 



1-23 



5*74 



Lot No. 2 (maize) . 



138-1 



262'6 



583-8 



I-50 



4-66 



The average daily gain was, therefore, much greater in 

 the case of the maize and shorts ration, while the consump- 

 tion of food per lb. of gain was considerably less. This 

 experiment was conducted with pigs of different breeds, and 

 the individual gains showed great variation according to the 

 breed, and emphasised the importance of raising a strain 

 of pigs that are "thrifty and good doers." 



The results of some further trials! are given in the table 

 on the next page, and from the figures obtained it would 

 appear that not only does barley produce greater daily gains 

 than maize, but at a less cost per lb. of gain. 



Maize. — An experiment at the Ohio State University 

 showed that the cost of producing 100 lb. of gain from maize 

 was 11s. iod., while from wheat it was 16s. 8d. At the 

 Illinois Experiment Station an average of 16 trials at various 

 periods of the year, with pigs varying from 66 lb. to 311 lb. 



* Bull. 51, Central Experimental Farm. 



+ North Dakota Agric. Expt. Stat., Bull. 84. 



J U.S. Dept. of Agric, Bureau of Animal Industry (Bull. 47, p. 100). 



