460 



Agricultural Chemistry. — Pig Feeding. 



We do not mean to say that it is unimportant in what state, or 

 in what manner, a manure is supplied, but in illustration of the 

 general truth which we would have kept in view, we may here call 

 attention to the fact which we have frequently noticed, namely, 

 that a crop of wheat, of more than the average yield of the neigh- 

 bourhood under the ordinary course of cultivation, -has for several 

 successive years been grown in the same field on this farm, by 

 the supply of pwre chemical salts alone. Let it, then, we repeat, 

 be clearly understood, that, in a certain point of view, it is a 

 matter of indifference whether we purchase food for cattle, or direct 

 manures — and that in some respects therefore the two classes of 

 manures can to a great extent mutually replace each other. 



Let this be a settled idea in the farmer's mind, and he will 

 more clearly see the importance of a better understanding of the 

 feeding process, and also of those circumstances which must 

 determine the economy of the mutual substitution of artificial 

 manures and those derived from the fatting animal. 



In prosecuting our inquiries into the general laws of 3Ieat 

 and Manure-making^ we have found it necessary to extend our 

 experiments from Sheep, as at first undertaken, to Oxen and 



Our results, in relation to both these descriptions of animals, 

 as well as the sheep, will eventually be considered in reference 

 to Manure as well as Increase; but we think it desirable to bring- 

 forward the whole of the feeding experiments, before entering 

 upon those relating to manure. In pursuance of this plan, a 

 portion of the present paper on Pig feeding was actually in 

 type nearly three years ago, when that subject was somewhat pro- 

 minently before the agricultural public ; but, owing to other en- 

 gagements, its completion has necessarily been delayed until the 

 present time. 



The necessity of including Pigs in an inquiry relating to the 

 production of meat and manure on the farm, is further seen v/hen 

 we come to consider the character of the food supplied to them. 

 Compared with that of sheep or bullocks, its dry substance 

 consists, weight for weight, of much more highly nutritive 

 vegetable products, and it is consequently generally much 

 more costly to purchase. Thus, whilst the food of fatting 

 sheep or oxen, is principally composed of grass, hay, and 

 roots, with a comparatively small proportion of cake or corn, 

 that of the pig, vt^hose digestive apparatus is very differently 

 constituted, is almost exclusively corn, or contains scarcely any 

 indigestible woody-fibre, and abounds more largely in starch, 

 fatty matters, and nitrogenous compounds. We should expect, 

 then, a very different rate of increase in relation to gross weight 

 of dry food consumed in the two cases ; v^^hilst in the excrements 



