Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1894-11-23

facts about feeding seventeen head of
high grade Poland Chinas the last two
weeks of August and first of Septem-
ber:
The seventeen head weighed just
5000 pounds the middle of August,
and were fed fourteen bushels of
soaked wheat with the addition of
three bushels of whole corn. At the
close of the first week, the gain in
weight was 155 pounds. The hogs
sold later ut 81 cents per pound,
which allowed him only fifty cents for
the wheat and corn-just the market
price here. The second week with a
weight of 3155 pounds, fourteen
bushels of wheat were ground and fed
in slop, making a gain of 315 pounds.
At 81 cents per pound this would bo
$17.32. With wheat at fifty cents this
made gain of $9.62, putting up the
price of the wheat to little over
$1.1S per bushel after deducting
seventy cents for grinding. This was
rather an abnormal gain of q pounds
daily against II pound the first week.
The third week began with the herd
of seventeen hogs weighing 3465
pounds, and they were again fed four
teen bushels of ground wheat fed in
slop, resulting in gain of 1876 pounds.
At 81 cents this made $7.42. Wheat
at fifty cents, with seventy cents for
grinding made the wheat or feed
worth 81. 10, making a loss of twenty
eight cents sustained for the third
weeks feed. No other reason was adj
vanced for this loss except the extreme
hot and dry weather, with no water to
wallow in, US all other circumstances
were the same as during the other
weeks.
A summary in recapitulation for the
three weeks results in gain of COS
pounds at 81 cents, or $33.27; deduct
$23.90 the price of the grain and
grinding, ana there remains balance
of $9.37, as the gain for twenty-one
days feeding, and 70 4-5 cents per
bushel for the grain fed after deduct
ing the cost of grinding, S1.40, and a
gain of l ITO pounds per day for the
feeding period. Fractions have not
been closely counted in the above
calculation, which may make slight
variation, but on the whole this ex-
pertinent, like many others recently
published, proves that wheat at fifty
cents is an economical feed for hogs
up to at least certain age and weight.
1t has been question with me, both
from experience and observation,
whether the ground or soaked wheat
can be fed at a profit after the hog has
arrived at a point where growth ceases
and the animal takes on nothing bnt
fat. 1t might have been that the rea-
son given here was good one for the
loss sustained the third week, but I
believe that some corn added during
that period would have made a reason
able gain in weight. Farmers are find
ing out more about wheat as feed
than ever before, simply because it
could not be grown for fifty cenis per
bushel and leave a profit, and they
have begun testing its feeding value.
We have always looked upon it as food
for family consumption only, putting
it after the fashion of an old German
hereabouts, that sit was made for man
to eat, and twas wicked to feed it to
stock" We are leaving behind many
relics of fogyism and the scruples of
dipping ''into the -four barrel for pig
feed" as q moral sin is one of them.
When the farmer can head off the bulls
and bears of the Chicago grain mar
kets, get twenty-five cents in premium
over the ruling prices for wheat, and
still have the manurial residuum left
to enrich the soil, we are doing the
greatest work of our generation
Rural New Yorker.