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985 Report oF THE First ASSISTANT OF THE 
Feeding Experiments with Swine. 
Some feeding experiments with pigs have been made in which 
several lots of pigs have been*fed from birth, keeping the mother 
with them so long as she would give milk. The data derived from 
these experiments, so far as they relate to the time that pigs can 
profitably be fed with the sow, will be of more definite value 
in connection with the results of other feeding trials to be reported 
later. But as the results from three lots of pigs of three breeds 
which were fed alike for some months after separation from the 
sow will give additional information to that obtained in other 
feeding trials where the breeds are contrasted, they are here 

reported. These lots of pigs were all farrowed during the same 
week and were from mature and healthy stock of three breeds, 
Poland China, Duroc and Berkshire. The pigs were fed with the 
sow during the first fourteen weeks. 
The results of feeding are for convenience of comparison cal- 
culated to the average per day for each 100 pounds of live weight 
fed and are arranged in periods of five weeks each except the first 
period of four weeks. Skim-milk, which at the price it is usually — 
rated forms one of the cheapest foods, was not used in these trials, 
and as grain alone was fed the cost of growth is correspondingly — 
high. During the first period wheat bran alone was fed, during 
the second equal parts of wheat bran and ground oats and during 
the third equal parts of bran, middlings and ground oats. During 
the fourth period, the first after the sow was removed, the pigs 
were fed the same as for the third. For the fifth and sixth 
periods “mixture No. 3,” containing six parts wheat middling 
two parts wheat bran, four parts corn meal and one part cottonseed 
meal was fed, and during the last two periods “ mixture No. 4” was 
fed, this mixture consisting of four parts wheat middlings, two — 
parts wheat bran, six parts corn meal, and one part cottonseed 
meal. In calculating the cost of the food, wheat bran is rated 
at eighteen dollars per ton, corn meal at twenty-four dollars, wheat 
middlings at twenty dollars, ground oats at twenty-six dollars, and 
cottonseed meal at thirty dollars per ton. | 
The gross cost of production of live weight for the whole trial, 
~ not counting the value of weight lost by the sow, was for the Pol- 
