The Portland daily press., 1892-01-07
RATNQNS FOR HOGS.
An Exclusive Corn Diet Weakening sts
the Pigs Bones. ash

An Exclusive Corn Diet Weakening sts
the Pigs Bones. .nah 4
We have fed pigs with cornmeal only,
while to other pigs of the same litter we
have fed ration of half cornmeal, while
for the other half was substituted in
some instances shorts, in others ground
peas, and in others skimmilk. Where
we have fed shorts, peas or skimmilk we
have found great differences in the car
cases of the pigs over the carcasses of
those fed on corn only. In general
may say that the bones of pigs fed ex-
clusiyely on corn are something like 200
pounds weaker under the breaking test;
that the blood is as much as 25 per cent.
less in amount; that the lean meat is
sometimes as much as 25 per cent. less,
and that the kidneys and liyers are also
small
BY the breaking test is meant that the
thigh bone Of the hog is placed upon two
iron edges four inches apart, while the
breaking weight, consisting of an iron
plate set edgeways, comes down from
above SO as to rest upon the bone at a
point midway between the two plates
upon which the bone is placed. A break
ing strain is then applied and the power
required noted. This work is done with
a machine used for testing the strength
of materials. Be it further said in ex-
PLANTATION of these experiments that we
usually began with well fed pigs 80 or
100 days old, and that they were fed
upon the different kinds of feed for from
100 to 14O days.
II it is possible for Us to weaken the
bones of hogs to such an extent as have
indicated, to pinch the muscles and kid
neys, to decrease the amount of blood
flowing in the veins and to shrivel the
very muscles of the body itself by a sys-
tenn of exclusive corn feeding in SO short
time as four or five months, what must
be the dangers that beset swine rearing
in the hands Of men ignorant of the COM
position and character of the foods they
are feeding? Supposing that, instead of
the large percentages have indicated, a
man weakens his hogs only to the extent
of, say, per cent. by improper feeding,
what unfortunate results must follow if
pigs thus weakened become breeders,
which in turn are weakened, and this
condition carried on for a series of gen.
erations. It will be made worse and
worse.
1t seems to me that in the great corn
region of the west we cannot be too care
full in studying the lessons / have tried
to bring out in this paper, and if we
properly understand them we have key
to much of the complaint now prevalent
about the hog lacking constitution.
How can hogs overfed on corn and
underfed on everything else have any
constitution whatever is the proper ques-
ton to ask, it seems to me. And now
let it be distinctly understood that do
not desire to detract one iota from the
value of Indian corn. 1t is the grandest
crop we raise and will always continue
to be the leading food plant, for which
purpose nothing on our farms can equal
it. Because corn is so cheaply and
abundantly produced we have committed
a gross error in feeding it exclusively,
and it is this exclusiveness that am
talking against, and not Indian corn
Professor N. A. Henry, Wisconsin Agri-
cultural Experimental Station.