1912.J Jerusalem Artichokes asa Food for Stock. 927 



Value as a Food for Pigs. — For the feeding of pigs, 

 Coburn * says that Jerusalem artichokes are estimated as 

 having approximately the same feeding value as potatoes, or 

 a little more. In America the pigs are turned into the field 

 to harvest the crop for themselves, and Coburn states that a 

 crop of artichokes used as pasture should provide for eight 

 or ten hogs per acre for three or four months, the length of 

 time depending on the grain-food given. "Its worth, cost 

 considered, has not been fully appreciated, perhaps because 

 of the prevalent idea that, once established in the soil, its 

 eradication is very difficult; but this is not necessarily a fact. 

 ... In the fall, when the tubers are grown, the hogs will do 

 the harvesting." At the Missouri Agricultural College it 

 was found that for pig-feeding one bushel of artichokes and 

 three bushels of maize were superior to four bushels of maize. 



In Bulletin 129, issued by the Ontario Agricultural College, 

 it is stated that in some districts of Canada the crop is very 

 popular as a food for pigs, that pigs are very fond of arti- 

 chokes, and that the tubers have a little higher feeding-value 

 than potatoes. At the Canadian Central Experimental 

 Farm f one-sixteenth of an acre of artichokes was found to 

 return a net profit in pork of $9.76 (40s. 6d.). The pigs 

 received a grain ration of lj lb. per head per day of meal 

 composed of one-half maize, and one-sixth each of oats, peas, 

 and barley, and harvested the artichokes while still immature. 

 The average gains of six pigs were as follows : — 



Average weight, October 3rd 104 lb. Average gain 33 lb. 



24th 137,, „ Daily rate of gain I 'S7 lb. 



Potts I says : "Few foods are more relished by pigs. The 

 tuber in the raw state is very nutritious, more especially for 

 pregnant sows, and also sows reduced in weight and condition 

 after suckling and weaning big litters. . . . One acre will 

 support twenty sows from four to six months." 



At the Oregon Experiment Station ** six pigs were fed 

 with grain, on one-eighth of an acre of artichokes, between 

 October 22nd and December nth. The pigs weighed from 

 117 to 215 lb., and consumed 3*1 lb. of grain for each pound 

 of gain in live-weight, and as 5 lb. of grain alone is usually 



* F. D. Coburn, Swine in America, 1909, pp. 168, 255. 

 t Ann. Kept, of Exp. Farms, 1 900-1 901, p. 94. 



% H. W. Potts, " Feeding of Pigs," Agric. Gaz. of N.S. Wales, 1909, p. 276. 

 ** U.S. Dept. of Agric., Farmers Bulletin, No. 92, p. 20. 



