On increasing our Supplies of Animal Food. 



369 



animal matters, which they convert into pork or bacon with a 

 profit. 



The following is a case of high feeding with profit in the in- 

 stance of the hog. Two sows and thirteen pigs were bought for 

 15/.; they consumed 68/. worth of Indian corn and barley, both 

 bought at so much as 5s. per bushel ; they ate the produce of 

 one-eighth of an acre of potatoes, and they had the run of a grass 

 field during the period of feeding ; they ultimately yielded 276 

 score lbs. of bacon, which, selling at 85. 6d. per score, realised 

 1152.J or 35/. beyond the actual cost of animals and food; a sum 

 which was ample payment for the potatoes and the grass. But 

 everyone can find in his experience instances of profitable feeding 

 in the case of the hog, as well as in the case of the other animals 

 also which the farmer fattens. The difficulty is to give only their 

 due importance to detached instances of this kind. The following 

 instances appear to be average truths. They are extracted from 

 the « Agricultural Gazette' in 1847-8. On a Galloway farm, thirty 

 aged cows and heifers were tied up to feed : — 



£. s. d. 



They cost 292 0 0 



Were fed 30 weeks. Interest . « . . 9 2 0 



Attendance 15 0 0 



Fuel , 4 0 0 



Linseed lOqrs., beans 30bshls., oats 50 lbs. . . 40 18 0 



Total cost . . 361 0 0 

 They were sold for ...... 425 0 0 



having consumed 400 tons of Swedish turnips, which, at 3s. a 

 ton (the price they thus obtained from them), make about 60/. 

 the amount they gained. Again, on a north Lincolnshire farm, 

 sixty head of cattle (forty Galloways and twenty shorthorns) were 

 put up to feed : — 



£. s. d. 



They cost 905 0 0 



Were kept from January till May. Interest . . 22 10 0 



12 tons of oil-cake 138 0 0 



5 tons of hay . . . . . . 20 0 9 



Attendance * . . . . . 26 0 0 



Total cost . . £1111 10 0 

 They were sold for . ..... 1197 2 0 



having consumed about 580. tons of swedes, which, at nearly 3s. 

 per ton, the price their feeding obtained for them, make about 

 86/.. the amount they gained. These prices do not pay for 

 growing these roots ; but in the one case 150 tons of good manure 

 were made, and in the other 1300 cubic yards, and it is to this 

 that the farmer looks for repayment of his cost. 



