THE PIGGERY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1212, 24 May 1895, Page 6

THE PIGGERY.

EXPERIMENTS IN PIG FEEDING. In the tenth annual report of the Agricultural Experiment Station of 'the Wisconsin University, America, which I have received from the authorities of that flourishing institution, there is an interesting and useful section on the feeding of pigs—a subject more or less closely connected with the dairy. The experiments on which the report is based were comprehensive in scope and variety, and the tabulated results are of a decidedly interesting character.

The first, table relates to sows that were suckling young litters of pigs, and up to the time of weaning the latter. Three lots of the four litters experimented with were induced to eat as much artificial food as possible in addition to their mother’s milk, and the fourth was restricted to the natural supply of food only. The result of the experiment goes to show that it pays to feed well not only 'he sows, I>ug the litter too, for the gain of weight made is less costly at that period than after the litter i; weaned. 'I he food supplied was maize meal, shorts, and skim milk, and the period covered from eightyseven days with lot three, to one hundred and one days with lots one and two respectively. The next experiment is remarkable on account of its object, viz., feeding for lean in one case, and for fat in the other. This experiment was conducted at the Missouri Agricultural College, and ibis reported here as an illustration. Six pigs of a litter of eight, and 100 days old, were separated into two lots, and fed as follows:—Lot 1, one part dry blood, six parts shorts, and fourteen parts sweet skim milk by weight; lot 2, fine ground maize meal, all they could eat The live weight of lot 1 at the end of the experiment was 19 per cent, greater than lot 2, the dressed weight 21 per cent, greater, the kidneys 42 per cent, heavier, the livers 32, the spleen 33, the blood 59, the hair 36, the skin 36, the large muscles (flesh of the back 64, the two tenderloin muscles (flesh 1) 38, the bones 23 —all heavier in lot 1 than in lot 2. On the other hand, of all the meat that could be cut from the carcases of lot 2, 46 per cent, was fat, and of lot 1 only 38 per cent. This experiment, agreeing with others, goes to show that where large pigs are fed with corn, which, like maize, is rich in carbohydrates but poor in protein, there will be first ail excessive development of muscles (flesh ?), hair, slcin, spleen, liver, kidneys, and blood ; whilst the very strength of the bones may be reduced almost one-half. Capital illustrations show the proportion of fat and lean in three different carcases, cut in section.

Most farmers in England will or may have noticed that there is hut a small proportion of lean meat in pigs fed on maize, and that the bacon runs very much to oil in the frying-pan. The lesson is that it were better to mix the food, giving a fair proportion of albuminoids, as in bean, pea, or wheat meal. In like manner maize is an unsuitable kind of corn to use alone to any other sort of animal; to mix it with other kinds is most desirable with plenty of bran, if nothing else is available.

In reference to growing pigs, the report says : —“lf corn,” that is to say, maize, “is fed, and nitrogenous food withheld, the pigs will become dwarfed and fatten prematurely, with weakened bones, diminished blood, and reduced vital organs.” It must not, however, be assumed that fat or lean can be developed at will, ad libitum , by this or that system of feeding. That a difference, sometimes considerable, may be brought about i 3 no doubt true ; but the limits of this variation, one way or another, are soon reached, as a rule, and there is a natural law which plainly says : “Thus far shalfc thou go, and no farther.”

Another remarkable experiment was that on the effects of rain-water, wellwater, and bone meal on the carcases and bones of pigs. Three lots, each of two pigs, were fat alike as to corn, but No. 1 had bone meal in addition, and rain-water ; No. 2 had rain-water, but no bone-meal; and No. 3 had hard well-water and no bone-meal. The food required for 1001 b of gain in weight of carcase was, with No. 1, 454 lb; with No. 2,5261 b; and with No. 3,5741 b, The strength of the thigh

bones was more than 60 per cent, greater in No. 1 than in either of t,hfe others. The results in reference to / rain-water versus well-water were distinctly in favour of the former, as might well have been predicted. In other experiments, too, the feeding of *• a pinch of bone meal ’’ was found highly beneficial in several ways, and, indeed, the feeding of “ hardwood ashes in a separate trough ” was also beneficial. The amount of corn-meal required to. produce 1001 b gain of carcase was 4871 b where.bone-meal was used, 4911 b where ashes were fed, and 6291 b where neither of these was employed. It must be remembered, however, that bone-meal and ashes build up the bony structure and ail digestion, but do not produce flesh save in an indirect manner, and through a stimulated digestion.

The value of skim milk, buttermilk, and whey as feeding materials was demonstrated in several experiments, and whilst the skim milk was worth 3£ cents per gallon in the saving of corn it effected, buttermilk was worth 2|cents, tmd whey one cent. As a cent is equivalent to a halfpenny, there is no difficulty in transmuting the value f into a British equivalent in each case. I These returns relate to a period when fat pigs were worth from 30 to 40 per cent, more than they are to-day, and in arriving at tLe current value of skimmilk, buttermilk and whey we must deduct so much from the foregoing estimated value of these articles. In any case, however, it is obvious that skim milk and buttermilk, and even whey, though to a much less degree, are valuable things in pig feeding. In another experiment the object was to ascertain if maize meal alone—that is to say without any other kind of com—was the best and most economical thing to use in pig-fattening. Nine pigs were divided into lots of three each ; one lot was fed on maize meal, one on shorts, and one on a mixture of the two. The result was a decided victory of the mixture over either and both the single meals, but at the same time the shorts bad a still more decided victory over the maize meal as an effective and economical fattening agent. This is an important thing to bear in mind, and it would be well if each and every man in these islands who fattens pigs would test the matter for himself. A great deal of capital wheat is now being coarsely ground and used in pig feeding, and it will represent shorts sufficiently wel’, though the best ever seen. This will serve, in part, as an experiment, and we may venture to say that the bacon now being fed on crushed wheat, for the most part, will be of decidedly superior quality to that of last winter, which was chiefly fed on maize. The best insults (with • pigs from three to four months old) ever attained at the Wisconsin Experiment Station, iu any feeding trial, weie found, we are told, when the ration consisted of onethird ground oats and two-thirds maize meal. There was no experiment made —and this is a matter for regret —to test the relative value of ground oats and shorts. Ground barley was tried in competition with maize meal, both with skim milk and without it, and in each case the maize was about 8 per cent superior to the barley. Notwithstanding this, the barley is recommended as forming “an additional variety of feed, capable of building up bone and muscle.”

The results of a series of experiments at various experiment stations, whose object was to test the value of cooked food for pigs, reveals a consensus of opinion in favour of uncooked food. On the other hand, it was demonstrated in another experiment that wet food was more effective than dry. Possibly it may be generally correct to say that cooked is inferior to unoooked corn, in the feeding of pigs, though we cannot decide the matter on the results of anything less than a long and repeated series of experiments; but, however this may be, it is tolerably safe to affirm that warm food instead of cold is an economical feature in pig-feeding, especially in cold weather. It is laid down that a sow, during pregnancy, “should receive plenty of protein food, in the shape of blue grass or clover pasture, bran, shorts, middlings, shipstuff, skim milk, and peas.” In this country we have none of the famous Kentucky blue grass, nor, indeed, do we find ourselves in want of it; and we are nob clear what is the meaning of “ shipstuff” in the middle of a great continent like North America.

“It is impossible to keep brood sows through the winter on Indian

corn alone, and have good results at farrowing time. Even if large litters of pigs are successfully brought into the world bv dams so fed, there must be a weakening of constitution which sooner or later will bring disastrous results ” This is tho testimony of American experts in reference to maize, and it is expedient that we should pay attention to it. A mixture of different, kinds of corn is better than any one single kind for feeding pigs, or, indeed, any other of the domesticated animals of the farm But if we want the finest quality and flavour of bacon, we must feed w.th a mixture of oat, wheat and maize meals, well softened in good skim milk, and fed in a lukewarm state. —J. P. Sheldon in the Agricultural Gazette.