The National tribune., 1892-10-20
OUR RURAL TOPICS,
Some Practical Suggestions for Our
Agricultural Readers
SOUR MILK vs.. SWEET FOR PIGS.


At the Vermont Station a series Of tests have
beer made to determine if there is gain made
over the old plan of feeding sour milk to pigs
by feeding the skim milk sweet, and the result
was that the sour milk came out decidedly
ahead. This has caused many to declare that
the stations are not doing good work, for in the
past some of these stations have been declaring
that sweet milk was far superior as food for
hogs, and are now saying that the old farmers
are wiser than the professors; and now one Is
hearing from the rank and Gle to feed the
hogs sour milk to fatten them :" Up in the
wids of Wisconsin lives an old German farmer
who is as wise as the wisest in hog ology, and
who for years has been an exrerimenter along
this very line, and who has settled down to
sweet feed. and now rises to remark that the
professor only gave half explanation to the
sour-food feeding by keeping out OF the count
the important fact that the hogs while being
fed sour milk. e.. just thickened, which is
not sour milk at all-were at the same time fed
sweet cornmeal with it to balance the ration,
and the result was that the meal actually nsu-
traized the slight souring- Of the milk. Had
the milk and meal been mixed for 81 hours
before feeding SO as to have become actu-
ally sour such az the average farmer feeds
for sour food, the result would have been en-
tirely different. Where hogs are fed to the
highest point and natare is called upon to do
a large amount of digestion. there is no doubt
that the introduction of small per cent of
Tactic acid ferment into part OF the food
would be Of benefit; but as against ration
highly charged with sourness, the sweet food
will, Theo. Louis asserts, prove farsuperior for
the pigs, and even the larger hogs; all of which
goes to show that when the dairymen are COM
pelled to feed the pigs sour whey. or milk. that
instead of adding the meal to the milk hours
in advance of feeding, it should be given to
them dry, and the whey come in as drink, or
at most mixed al the time of feeding. and
thus stop another "leak" in dairy practice
that of feeding the hogs continuous sour diet.
LEAN VERSUS FAT MEATS.
In the Experiment Station Record Prof.
Atwater calls attention to the deficiency of
protein in our agricultural products and shows
how this tends to increase the already too great
proportion Of fat and carbohydrates in the
food we eat. Corn, our great staple, is poor in
protein at the best. The larger part of our
pork is made from corn. Pork made from corn
exclusively has relatively little lean. The corn
fed pork in the market is mostly fat. The pork
producer in this country has come to be es-
sentially a manufactures of fat. Like other
manufacturers he must compete in the markets
of the world, home and foreign. He meets
serious competition in the fat of other meats,
In cotton-seed oil, and in petroleum. The home
market is relatively overstocked with fat pork.
There are then, two things for the pork pro-
ducers to do-make leaner pork, and get better
access to foreign markets. Leaner pork can be
obtained by the use of nitrogenous foods
skim milk, bran, shorts, cotton-seed meal if it
can be advantageousy utilized; beans, peas,
clover alfalfa and other leguminous plants.
1t is, however, impracticable for many pork
producers to change their system Of feeding at
once. The bulk of the pork of the country must
be manufactured from corn, but where nitro
genous foods are available they should be used,
and where they are not an attempt should be
made to introduce them. Skim milk is rich in
protein aud Prof Atwater states that on this
account it is excellent for making the lean
pork that rational diet calls for, in place of
the excessively fat product with which the
market is flooded. There is the same trouble
with our other meats Our beef and mutton
are fatter than need be, and the excess of fat is
greater than we realize. 1t is true there is a
large demand for fat beef. This is because
such beef is tender. juicy and attractive in
flavor, and it is not the fat but the lean part of
the meat that is mostly wanted. The European
feeder makes tender, juicy beef of excellent
flavor, without excess of fat. When the cattle
he is fattening become fat to the point where
the quality of the fat in the meat is reasonable
and flavor acceptable they are slaughtered.
His feeding stuffs are richer in protein than
the grasses aud grain of Central and Western
States.