ECONOMICAL PIG FEEDING.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 87, 22 July 1895, Page 2

ECONOMICAL PIG FEEDING.

(By Mr E. Hulme, King River, in the Wangaratta Chronicle, Victoria.) Now that the pork and bacon business is coming to the fore again, it should be opportune to give a few hints as to feeding in the raost.economioal manner, and show the difference of the “ rule of thumb ” or no rule at all, and what science teaches in the matter. The pig has always .been considered “The Poor Man’s Friend” and I may say the farmer’s too, if pro* perly fed and looked after, independent of being the best manure making machine. In respect to the different foods of cattle and the nature of them, it is very necessary lo know their feeding qualities, otherwise we may throw a lot of money’s worth away. This subject has not come to the front very long, and the results are astounding. However, necessity often commands attention, but the chemistry of foods, and the power to assimilate their various constituents, have not, as yet, gained much attention of the community at large, although they are of as much importance to the food of man as of animals, and the general knowledge' thereof is likely to make a great revolution in the diet of men as well as anis mals. It is now generally believed that quite one-half of the food is wasted, not being utilised or assimilated with the body, and a great deal results from imperfect preparation in cooking, as well as a proper mixture of proper constituents. This also, “ the chemistry of cooking,” is gaining great attention. Now, an illustration, and very appropriate just now on pig-feeding. Suppose you feed a pig on potatoes alone, which are almost entirely a starchy food, say a young pig at lOOlbs., fed with l.OOOlbs of potatoes. In three months the gain would, possibly, be only lolbs. By substituting meal and peas of half the value of the potatoes with oOOlbs of the potatoes, you immediately get a gain of lOOlbs of pork instead of lolb, and at the same cost. How is this ? Just because the starchy food alone cannot be assimilated, absorbed, or retained, to build up the carcase, consequently it is expelled in the excreta, and this (the starch) being merely an atmospheric product, does no good in the manure heap; but feed a little in excess with nitrogenous food (peas or meal), and you are safe, as what is not assimilated is a most powerful manure. We thus see the vital importance of know--ing this. In adding the meal and pea wash you form a complete diet, and you get a gain of lOOlbs of pork. The cost of the extra feed is double the first ration, but the increase of weight is six times, and the profit in proportion. Mr T. B. Hawes says it is the same with feeding cattle, cows in particular. Mangles and other roots were almost thrown away if fed alone, bran or meal should be combined, the same with ewes, particularly with lambs. To show the advantage of the pig over al\ over stock, the same food to oxen gives a return of 220, sheep 264, pigs‘s72 of live weight, or oxen 1 percent, sheep I’ls, and pigs 6 per cent. The same principle follows in feeding the vegetable world; the constituents in the soil must be balanced, otherwise you may spend a fortune in manures to no purpose. Thus we see the vast importance of science to the farmer. The same rule emphatically holds good as regards feeding man ; in the past more than one-half of the food was wasted or worse than destroyed. It takes Gibs of grain to make a gallon of beer, and after manipulation it is seld for two shillings. 8,000,000 (eight-mil-lions) of bushels arc worse than destroyed in England alone, and Baron Liebig, 50 * years since, showed that there was as much nutriment in a penny loaf as in a gallon of beer, which costs 2s. It is the same with the glorious grapes, threefourths worse than destroyed. Baron Liebig said of this also that there was only about half a grain of nutriment in a glass of wine, four-fifths being destroyed by ferm enl ation. There is as m uch nutriment in a pound of raisins as in a pound of meat, and there is no better meal than half a pound of raisins and a penny loaf. The size should be according to price of flour, particularly if brown bread,’ as then we have the nitrogen, which is so essential. This should be washed down with beverage, pure water. We can trust God’s laboratory, the stomach, to the rest, in mixing, brewing, and mg in a most marvellous manner. I iont; m )$» to say this should bo the general practice, but it well to know these things at a pinch, and it is gratifying to know men are learning, perhaps slowly but Savely, those mattes,