Agricultural Chemistry. — Pig Feeding. 



477 



were to be taken as a strict measure of the comparative productive 

 value of the food consumed, we must decide quite otherAvise. 

 Thus one of the pigs, No. 2, though during the first fortnight he 

 gave a pretty fair increase, from that time became unwell and lost 

 the use of his limbs, as in the instance already noticed. He was 

 entirely unable to walk, and could scarcely support himself at the 

 trough, and, as seen in the Table he only gained 3 lbs, in the 

 second period, and only 1 in the third ; though during the fourth 

 he somewhat recovered, and then gave an increase of 17 lbs. The 

 other two pigs in this pen, however, gave a very fair increase, at 

 a gradually diminishing rate as the experiment proceeded, and 

 eventually they gave the highest proportions of <ie(7<f- weight to 

 live, of any of the entire series of 36 pigs ; and they were, there- 

 fore undoubtedly well ripened. We may perhaps fairly conclude 

 that the bad result of the No. 2 pig seriously reduced the apparent 

 productive value of the food in this pen : at any rate, it would 

 seem contrary to the facts to suppose, that in consulting their own 

 inclination, this was not calculated to guide the animals to the 

 selection best adapted to their progress, when we find, that under 

 this arrangement two of the pigs matured more completely than 

 any others of the entire Series. It is to be regretted, that the 

 exact proportions of the several foods actually consumed by the 

 two pigs who gave such a good result, cannot be stated separately 

 from that of the other and faulty pig. We shall find, however, 

 that the results of the entire pen in this respect are still of con- 

 siderable interest, as will be seen in the following table : — 



Table IV. 



(Experiments with Pigs. — Series I) 



Showing the Proportions in 100 Parts, in which the several Foods were consumed 

 in Pen 12, during the 4 successive Periods of the Experiment. 







Beans and 

 Lentils. 



Indian 

 Corn. 



Bran. 



Total Food. 







1st Period of 14 Days 

 2nd ditto 

 3rd ditto 

 4th ditto 



63 

 38i: 



30 

 45 



52 



7 



Si 

 5* 

 4| 



100 

 100 

 100 

 100 







Mean of the 8 Weeks 



49fo 



45fo 



4; 



100 





If we suppose, as we fairly may do, that the two healthy and 

 flourishing pigs in this pen mainly determined these proportions, 

 in which the several foods were taken, it is plain, that as they 

 ripened, they naturally selected less of the nitrogenous and more 

 of the starchy and fatty food. There is, indeed, a trifling excep- 

 tion to this rule in the last period of the experiment, during which 



