The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1893-08-30

I
pork still coming into the markets is
in heavy carcasses which were fed
mostly ON corn. Now this is neither
the most desirable, nor is it by any
means the most profitable pork.
On a recent visit to the Wisconsin
Experiment Station at Madison, Pro-
fessor W. A. Henry, who is a born ex-
perimenter, showed me some expert
ments now being made, and the un-
published results of some already made
on the same line of pig feeding for
most profit. II the farmers could see
what saw, and realize fully the great
Importance of the principles that con-
troll animal life, and then follow them,
they would save very much of what is
now ignorantly thrown away, and
would more than double the profits of
pork making, by reducing to its lowest
limit the amount of food now used as
maintenance ration or simply food for
support.
The Professor has demonstrated,
beyond doubt, by series Of careful
experiments, that the maintenance ra-
tion is in equal proportion to live
weight, or nearly SO that while 100
pound pig requires one and one-half
pounds of food tone pound of wheat
middlings and two pounds of corn
meaD, simply to keep it without gain
or loss, 500-pound pig, under like
conditions, requires five pounds of the
same food for its support. He further
showed that about three pounds of this
same food, in addition to either ration,
made one pound of pork.
Now, were a man to try to make
pork with these pigs, with the one he
would get one pound for each four and
one-half pounds fed; with the other
he would feed eight pounds. For
comparison, suppose the mixture were
worth $50 per ton, or one cent per
pound in the case of 100-pound pigs,
his pork would cost four and one-half
cents per pound; in the case Of a 800
pound pig it would cost eight. Or, to
put it in another light, suppose ten
pigs be fed four and one-hslf pounds
of feed each, or forty-five pounds in
the aggregate, they will give gain OF
ten pounds of pork. In other words,
with these pigs forty-five pounds of
feed will give ten pounds of pork.
Now, if the same food be given to pigs
weighing 500 pounds each, it will feed
just nine of them five pounds each,
but as with pigs of this size it takes
five pounds as the food of support, no
gain would be made. The food would
be simply thrown away, 80 far as fat
tening purposes go. If these nine
larger pigs be fed to make one pound
of gain each, it would require twenty
seven pounds extra. This added to
the forty-five pounds, maintenance ra-
tion, makes seventy-two pounds of feed
to make nine pounds of pork. 1t will
be seen that these experiments of Pro-
fessor Henry show that the mainte-
nance ration, while not exactly in pro-
portion to the live weight, is approx
imately so. They show that while it
took one and one-half pounds-to sup
port the growing 100-pound pig, that
one pound per hundred pounds was
sufficient with the 500-pound pig. This
is easily accounted for by the fact that
there is less proportionste amount of
exterior surface in the larger pigs, no
growth, and probably less activity.
But carrying this proportion in the di-
rection of a pig still smaller than 100
pounds, it would probably require
with pig weighing twenty-five pounds
at the rate of two pounds per 100
pounds, or about one-half pound of
food as a maintenance ration. If this
be true, it would then only take three
and one-half pounds with this pig to
grow one pound of pork.
Further experiments by Professor
Henry show very conclusively that
corn or corn meal is, by no means, the
best food for pork growing, though
good for fattening Wheat middlings
he found much better than corn alone.
He also found, by careful experiments,
several times repeated, that 200 pounds
of corn meal and 1882 pounds of skim
milk produced as much growth as 500
pounds of the middlings meal mixture
and better growth than 500 pounds
of clean corn meal. In this we see that
five pounds of skim milk are about
equal to one pound of meal. The les
son for the pig feeder in the expert
ments is to feed young, thrifty pigs,
and to feed them on n mixture of corn
meal and wheat middlings, and never
to feed them beyond 100 pounds dressed
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