Agricultural Chemistry. — Pig Feeding. 



461 



of the pig we should hope for a manure commensurate with the 

 cost and richness of the food which has been its source. 



Setting aside what may be termed the incidental food of the 

 pig, such as wash, potatoes, and other roots, it may be said that 

 his stsi])\e fatti?ig foods in England are the leguminous seeds, such 

 as beans, peas, tares, and lentils, all of which are characterised 

 by containing a high per-centage of nitrogenous compounds ; 

 and, in still larger quantity, some of the grains — especially 

 harley — the inferior qualities of which are almost exclusively 

 devoted to his use. 



The grains, as compared with the leguminous seeds, contain 

 scarcely half the quantity of nitrogenous compounds, upon which 

 so materially depends the quality of the manure ; but they abound 

 much more in starch and other non-m.tr ogenous compounds, 

 which are believed to provide the chief of the respiratory and 

 fat-forming food of the animal. The quantity of actual fatty- 

 matter in the two classes of foods is variable ; but it is on an 

 average rather greater in the grains than in the leguminous 

 seeds. 



Pollard and bran are also much used as pig- foods. They 

 contain a large amount of woody fibre ; but the bran more espe- 

 cially contains a much higher per-centage both of nitrogen and 

 oi fatty -matter than the entire grain from wdiich it has been 

 derived. 



Of the several articles of food enumerated above, harley is 

 undoubtedly most in favour as the fatting food of the pig ; but 

 as nitrogen is so important a constituent in manure, and as barley, 

 as we have said, contains scarcely half so much of this substance 

 as the leguminous seeds, it is evidently a matter of importance 

 to consider, whether the latter might not advantageously be 

 employed more largely than at present — even supposing that 

 harley had some slight superiority, so far as the animal alone 

 was concerned. 



That the profit of feeding, indeed, is to be sought within the 

 limits of the value of the manure, and that it is, therefore, much 

 dependent on the quality of the latter, and, consequently, on the 

 judgment exercised in the selection of the foods, and the manage- 

 ment of the animals and of the manure — is a view which seems 

 to be supported at once by the convergent testimony of current 

 experience and by a consideration of the laws which regulate the 

 price of all articles in general use. Admitting that the prices of 

 all such articles are regulated by the cost of production, and that 

 they cannot long either be produced at a loss, or be sold at a 

 price which will yield more than a fair profit upon the capital 

 and labour employed in their production — and, applying this 

 view to the subject before us, we should certainly decide, that the 



