The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-11-07
Experiments in Cooking Food
for Swine.

Two lots of fine half-breed Berkshire
pigs of the same litter were used. Old
corn was fed in three different ways:
to wit, the whole corn; ground and
made into slop with cold water; and
ground, boiled and fed cold The
whole corn, five bushels, made forty
seven and three-quarter pounds of
pork; ground Give bushels, less mill
er's tolD and wet with cold water made
tifty-eight and one-half pounds; the
cooked meal, same amount as above,
made eighty-three and one-half pounds.
The utmost care was taken that this
test should be fairly made. The hogs
that consumed the dry corn, whole, got
the kitchen slop in addition.
Another experiment was with new
corn. Ten bushels of ears were fed
whole, and made twenty-nine pounds
of pork. The same amount ground
and cooked made sixty-four pounds.
Again, three bushels of meal were
cooked with five bushels of potatoes
and made seventy-two pounds of pork,
while ten bushels of ears, whole, made
seventy-one pounds. AS we in the
West measure corn, this would be six
and two-third bushels.
Hence, we see for cooking ten BUSH
els of corn, in the first experiment,
they received at current prices of pork,
one dollar and seventy-five cents.
Good pay, certainly, if it took one-half
day of the hired man; in fact, it is only
about one hours work. The pay for
cooking is precisely the same in the
second experiment as in the first. In
hot hu
them, five bushels of potatoes were
equal to seven bushels of corn fed raw !;
as the millers give bushel of meal,
fifty pounds, for a bushel of shelled
corn, fifty-siX pounds, or nearly so.
This fact was elaborated by Mr.. Joseph
Harris in his work son the Pig" pub
lished some years ago, and | shall not
attempt to discuss it farther than to
merely assert that it is an undoubted
fact, when the potatoes are fed in con-
juction with portion of meal, as above
stated. In another experiment, seven
bushels of raw corn made siXty-three
pounds of pork, and five bushels of
meal cooked made seventy-seven
pounds.
A well-infOrmed Pennsylvania farmer,
who by repeated experiments carefully
conducted, has proved the fact, says:
"With me the cooking adds Just one
third to the fattening quality of the
corn. In feeding 100 head, with corn
at fifty cents per bushel, l make $3.50"
Each one can estimate for himself the
expense of cooking 900 bushels. One
of the Clays of Bourbon county, KY,
some years ago made several elaborate
nt.Y,N To to tAa ,,,1
he says: cone bushel of dry corn
made five pounds ten ounces of pork;
one bushel of corn boiled on the ear
made fourteen pounds seven ounces;
while fifty-siX pounds of meal cooked,
made, in one instance, sixteen pounds
seven ounces, and in another nearly
eighteen pounds of live pork. Esti-
mating hogs at four cents, the dry
corn made twenty-five and one-half
cents; the whole corn cooked, fifty
seven cents, and the meal cooked,
siXty-fve cents" Nearly three times
as much as the raw corn. Will that
pay? 1t would seem so.
There is point connected with this,
however, that l have never seen men
toned. Hogs that have been raised
upon raw corn will not readily eat
either cooked corn or meal. The past
fall, while fattening a COW, l boiled the
corn for her on the ear, and concluding
to try it on fattening hogs, endeavored
for week to get them to eat it; but a
mere taste was all they would take. |
starved them for two days, but they
preferred to subsist on the droppings
from the cattle, and got very hungry.
The corn was sound and cooked in clear
water. / have had the same result once
or twice before. Hence | conclude that
those who intend to practice cooking
should commence with the pig, and use
meal instead of whole grain. In an
experiment which Professor e. M.
Shelton of our Kansas Agricultural
College made in 1885, upon some pigs,
to test the virtue of cooking, the eX-
pertinent was made by cooking the
whole grain. 1t was during a period
of very cold weather, as he speaks of
the cooked grain freezing before it was
eaten, and some days. portions having