■Agricultural Chemistry, — Pi<j Feeding. 



473 



due to some temporary circumstance connected v/ith his health, 

 owing- to which the contents of his stomach, &c., were unusually 

 small at the time of his second weighing. The other two pigs 

 in this pen give considerably less total increase than No. 1, but 

 their rate of progress is comparativ^ely very regular: that of No. 2 

 is singularly so ; and No. 3, which was one of those affected by 

 the swellings, nevertheless gives a gradually increasing rate of 

 gain from the commencement up to the end of the experiment. 

 We shall find too, further on, that the animals were satisfied with 

 less of this food, though so poor in nitrogen, in proportion to 

 their weight, than, with one exception, of any of the others ; it 

 will also be seen, that in spite of the comparatively small supply 

 of nitrogen, and the comparatively small actual increase in weight 

 of the pigs, yet this increase is, in reality, somewhat high, when 

 calculated in relation to the amount of food consumed. Nor 

 could the quality of the meat have suffered much ; for a dealer in 

 pork, with a practised eye, selected and purchased the carcass of 

 one of these pigs which had been diseased, from among the whole 

 36, after they had been killed and hung up. With these obser- 

 vations we may leave the result of this curious experiment for 

 the present ; but, before closing our statement of the facts of it, 

 it may here be remarked, that, of the mineral mixture described 

 above, 9 lbs. were consumed by the 3 pigs during the first fort- 

 night of its use, 6 lbs. during the second, and 9 lbs. during the 

 third. 



In Pen 6, with Indian corn meal as the complementary or ad 

 libitum food, 2 lbs. of Bean and Lentil meal constitutes the limited 

 food. Upon this diet, which contains a larger amount of nitrogen 

 than that of Pen 5, but still a very liberal supply of the non- 

 nitrogenous constituents, all the pigs begin well, and Nos. 1 and 

 3 give a regular and high rate of increase up to the end of the 

 experiment ; averaging, indeed, very nearly 2 lbs. per head per 

 day. No. 2 gives, indeed, the highest increase during the first 

 fortnight, but a decreasing one in the succeeding periods of the 

 experiment. This No. 2 pig, however, was much riper at the 

 last than either of the others ; so that his comparatively small rate 

 of increase as the experiment proceeded, is in no way disparaging 

 to the quality of the food, but rather otherwise. And if, as w^e 

 shall find further on, less food is consumed in proportion to 

 the weight of the animal as he approaches maturity, we may 

 suppose that this pig still did ample justice to all the food he 

 consumed. Taking this explanation of the comparatively small 

 increase of the No. 2 pig, it may be said that the diet of this 

 pen 6, has given, upon the whole, a good and uniform rate of 

 increase. 



In Pen 7 the limited food is 2 lbs. of Bran per head per day ; 



