The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1899-08-01
F ARM AFFAIRS.
VALUABLE HINTS TO SOUTH.
ERN FARMERS.

Experiment Station Makes Some sug.
gestions Deserving Special Thought
and Attention
Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer.
The interest shown by many of the
representative farmers of this State
in better stock, better and larger crops
and in increasing and preserving the
natural fertility of the soil is indicative
Of an all around improvement.
The tendency is to import less of the
necessities Of life and produce more at
home. In this our meat supply is OF
the very utmost Importance. The fact
that for 30 many years past we have
continued to send beyond the borders
OF our State for bacon and beef is to
our discredit. But the awakening, so
plain to be seen, to this condition of
affairs and the determination shown in
some quarters to apply the remedy of
growing more at home is not to be
ashamed Of.
With the great variety of grain and
forage crops doing 80 we'll in the South,
Dixie land" should be an exporter
rather than an importer Of nearly all
meat, dairy and poultry products. The
hog has done more than perhaps any
other animal to remove the mortgages
from farms in the Oaio and Mississippi
valleys. 1t will do as much for the
plantations Of the South whenever the
owners and cultivators thereof give
him the proper degree Of encourage
ment and assistance.
To produce cheap pork variety of
cheap and nutritious foods is essen
tial. True it is that fat pigs may be
but this single diet does not make the
cheapest or best pork. Corn is rich in
starch or heat and fat producers and
rather poor in protein or flesh and
muscle and lean meat makers. Expert
mental feeding indicates that for the
very best results in pork production
the food should contain from to z
pounds of starchy carbohydrate sub
stances to OF the protein or lean meat
making elements. Corn contains these
substances in the proportion Of 9 Z of
the former to 1 of the latter, conse-
quently it does not give the cheapest
and best pork when fed alone. Peas
on the other hand are by far too poor
in the starchy elements and too rich
for best results in proteins, containing
as they do abous 3 pounds Of the
former to one of the latter substances.
The natural fault or defect of either
of the separate grains mentioned above
may be corrected by mixing the two in
equal parts by weight, or il peas are
expensive and corn is relatively cheap,
one part Of peas by weight and two of
corn may be used to advantage. The
Alabama Experiment Station found
that when corn was fed alone it re-
quired 487 pounds of grain to make 100
pounds increase in weight in lot of
Essex pigs. When peas were used
alone 481 pounds Of grain produced 100
pounds increase. But when corn and
peas we're combined in equal parts by
weight 433 pounds of the mixture pro
duced 100 pounds increase, pigs uni
form in age and breeding being EN-
ployed in these trials. This is a gain
of not less than 10 per cent. in the feed
ing values Of the grains by mixing
them The trouble and expense of
harvesting the peas and shelling the
corn and mixing them may be avoided
by allowing the hogs to Craze the pea
field when the peas are mature and
throwing some ear corn to the hogs in
the field each day.
Rape, which is plant belonging to
the same general family as the cabbage,
cauIifio yer, kale and go forth, promises
to be of great service as a forage crop
to be grszad off by sheep and hogs
during late fall, winter and early
spring. This plant is rich in protein,
which with it's succulent nature and
cooling action on the digestive organs,
make it of great value when corn or
other heating grains form the bulk of
the grain allowance for the breeding, |
growing or t4ttening swine.
Experiments at the Wisconsin Ex-
pertinent Station show that hogs hav-
ing the run of 80 acre of rape pasture
in addition to which they ate 1906 |
pounds of corn and I, ,799 pounds Of
wheat middlings produced 1 919 pounds
OF grain, while it required 5,2O2 pounds
of CORE 1855 pounds of wheat mid
dlings without the rape to produce
/, ,993 pounds of increase on hogs of
came age and breeding. Or in other |