AgiicuUural Chemistry. — Fig Feeding. 



471 



•tils. Upon this mixed food the entire pen gives a greater increase 

 than Pen 1 with its more highly nitrogenous diet. Pig i\o. 1 in 

 this Pen 2 gave a much higher increase than either of the others, 

 and a very regular one throughout the four periods ; he was a 

 large-framed hog, and grew very considerably as well as fattened. 

 The other two pigs increase less than No. 1, though their increase 

 is also very constant during the first three periods of the experi- 

 ment ; but, during the concluding fortnight they seem to have 

 made much less progress. AYlien they Avere killed, however, 

 both these pigs were pronounced to be well fatted ; and we shall 

 presently see that the consumption of food in this pen decreased 

 very much during the fourth period of the experiment ; so that 

 the probability is, that the reason of these two animals not in- 

 creasing at the same rate as before, was that they were already 

 ripe ; from which cause both consumption and increase would 

 naturally be lessened. 



In Pen 3, 2 lbs. of Bran per pig per day is the limited food, 

 <ind the Bean and Lentil mixture the complementary or ad libitum 

 food. The Bran, which constituted the limited food of this pen, 

 contains, weight for w-eight, more nitrogen than the Indian meal 

 ^f Pen 2, but less than the Bean and Lentil mixture, which w^as 

 the only food in Pen 1. The Bran, however, contains rather 

 more fatty matter than the Beans and Lentils, but much less of 

 other non-nitrogenous constituents than either the Beans and 

 Lentils, or the Indian corn. Excepting in the item of fatty matter, 

 then — and of this the amount is, after all, inconsiderable — the 

 bran is much inferior to either the Beans and Lentils or Indian 

 com, but especially so in the non-nitrogenous starchy series of 

 compounds. The result is, that, although all the animals start 

 well on this food, they all afterwards more or less rapidly decline 

 in their rate of increase. The character of the deficiency of the 

 food in this pen is best seen by comparing the result with that 

 of Pen 2, in which 2 lbs. of Indian corn — so rich in the non- 

 iiitrogenous constituents — are given, instead of the 2 lbs. of Bran. 

 This comparison clearly points to the dependence of the animals 

 upon a due supply of the non-nitrogenous constituents of food — 

 however liberally they may be provided with the nitrogenous 

 ones. 



In Pen 4, with Beans and Lentils still as the ad libitum food, 

 we have 2 lbs. per pig per day both of Indian meal and of Bran, 

 as the limited food. This diet we should suppose to be decidedly 

 superior to that of Pen 3, but inferior to that of Pen 2. The 

 result is a much better total increase than in Pen 3, though less 

 than in either Pens 1 or 2. There was, however, in this Pen 4 

 one pig which gained very rapidly, and indeed twice as much 

 on the whole as either of its companions. This very prosperous 



