12 BULLETIN 378, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
stituted for fish meal. The results of the experiment, which is de- 
signed to run for one year, are reported by Mr. Alfred K. Lee for a 
period of 32 weeks, as follows : 
The mash fed consisted of one part each of bran, middlings, and fish meal 
and two parts of corn meal. In the check ration the fish meal was replaced by 
beef scrap. In addition, in each case a grain ration of equal parts of corn, 
wheat, and oats was fed. The beef scrap cost $53 per ton and was guaranteed 
to contain from 50 to 55 per cent of protein. The price for fish meal used in 
the calculation of the comparative costs was $46 per ton, a price recently quoted 
for a commercial article. 
The yield of eggs from the pen fed on the ration containing fish meal averaged 
113.1 per hen, at a cost of 7.1 cents per dozen and with a food consumption of 
44.1 pounds per hen. The average number of eggs per hen in the pen fed on 
the beef-scrap ration was 128.4, at a cost of 7.8 cents per dozen and with 55.7 
pounds of food eaten. Estimating the value of the eggs at 30 cents per dozen, 
the profit from the pen fed on beef scrap would exceed that of the pen on fish 
meal by $2.48, or about 14 cents per hen, on account of the greater production 
in the former pen. At a price slightly under that quoted, fish meal would have 
been as profitable as beef scrap. 
At the present time the hens have eaten the beef scrap a little more freely 
and have given a slightly greater egg yield. No differences were noted in regard 
to size or flavor of the eggs or the health and weight of the fowls. 
Similar results in regard to freedom from taint of fish in eggs were 
obtained by a manufacturer of poultry feeds who tested one of the 
experimental lots of meal prepared from the sardine waste. This 
particular lot of meal contained 17.51 per cent of fat and had no 
deleterious effect on the quality of the eggs. 
PIGS. 
A portion of the meal as used for feeding to cows and in com- 
pounding the ration fed to the poultry, was compared with tankage 
as a supplementary feeding stuff for growing and fattening pigs. 
This experiment was conducted by Mr. F. G. Ashbrook of the 
Animal Husbandry Division, Bureau of Animal Industry, who 
makes the following report of the work: 
The experiment was conducted to determine the comparative values of fish 
meal and tankage as supplements in a ration for growing and fattening pigs. 
The pigs used in this work were grade Berkshires, averaging 52.3 pounds 
per head when the experiment started. They were as uniform in size, age, 
and breeding as it was possible to obtain. 
For purposes of calculation the feeds used were estimated to cost as follows : 
Gorn, 70 cents per bushel, plus $2 per ton for grinding, making $27 
per ton. 
White middlings, $30 per ton. 
Digester tankage (60 per cent protein), $50 per ton. 
Fish meal, $35 per ton. 
It should not be assumed that this price is to establish arbitrarily a price 
for fish meal. As dried fish products have so largely been sold as fertilizers, 
it was thought that the price would to some extent be governed by the condition 
of the fertilizer market. 
