The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1909-05-04
GROUND FEED FOR STOCK.

Does IL pay TO grind feed for hogs?
This question has been discussed for
years, but does not seem to have been
finally settled one way or the other.
The learned experimenters are not
agreed in their conclusions, probably
because thpir work was done under
different conditions, aNd perhaps they
had previously formed decided opin-
ions which rendered them incompe-
tent TO make an impartial test, says
a writer in the Country Gentleman.
Every farmer knows that to obtain
the largest crop OF grain which the
land is capable Of producing, the Jumps
must be crushed, and the soil made
mellow and fine, so that the network
Of plant roots can easily penetrate 1t
in all directions, embrace every par
ticle and extract the necessary nolir-
ishment from the land.
SO in feeding animals-especially
greedy animals, like swine--it is i'm
pOrtant to have the hard grain foods
reduced to fine NEAL to enable the
gastric juices of the stomach to PEN
crate every particle of the mass de-
posted in the stomach, and act on II
in aid of digestion, giving the alb
sorbent vessels a fair chance to come
in contact with more of the atoms OF
which the grain is composed, and ap-
propriate more Of the nutriment from
them. Not many experienced feeders
of swine will dispute this, but some
will maintain that the strong jaws
! of the hogs do grind the grain fine
| enough. A writer not long ago said:
There is abundant evidence that the
| hog can grind and assimilate his food
better than the ingenuity OF man can
do II for him" II II were true that the
hog can grind his food better than a
| mill il is certain he has never done II.
A neighbor once took me to see his
| hogs, which he said he was wintering
on whole buckwheat, although there
was a good grist mill less than mile
| distant l showed him the hogs dung
was fill of buckwheat-some kernels
| not eve broken. "Oh," sad he, that's
nothing-they eat that all over again
and get the value out" Well. sup
pose they did. Is such eating over
of their own excavations wholesome
for the hogs? Can whole grain and
broken kernels pass through the stom-
ach aud the long, toc.-scls passages
Of the intestines and again be eaten
without at length causing injury?
There is not a particle OF doubt that
the dung of animals (like human ex-
cremenO is full of poisonous germs
elected from the system, and which
cannot again be introduced into the
body without danger. II hogs, are
compelled by hunger to eat over their
excavations to save the partly-masti-
inviting hog cholera 10 the pens? II
they do not eat it over, there is q
great waste of grain unless a large
flock of chickens could banquet on It
/ have raised and fattened hogs foi
more than half a century. and | know
that they greatly prefer ground feed
for regular diet, and will digest i
better, and fatten on It faster thar
on whole grain. Occasionally have
fed our hogs whole corn for change
but they never half masticated 1t, anC
some came through them as coarse
as samp, lie. Lehman of Saxony, Ger
many, found that 80 per cent of III,
whole grain fed to hogs was undigest
ed, and says that food should be re
duced to a condition more or less Hnl
before being given TO such animals
S, II. Clay of Bourbon county, Ken
lucky, made several experiments Il
feeding hogs, with the following re
suits Other conditions being equa
and similar one bushel Of dry cor,
made Ave pounds and 10 ounces .
pork; one bushel of ground corn, boil
, ed, made at one trial IA pounds an
, seven ounces of pork; at another trla
l6 pounds seven ounces OF pork an
1 at another, Is pounds of pork
J number of experiments at diifereu
stations are all agreed that the diftel
! ence in favor OF the meal is great, an
I that It pays we'll to grind grain "a
| hogs. Formerly Prof. Henry OF wit
= consin university asserted that Il di
q not pay to grind corn for hogs, b,
t he now says that when torn gets U
Q to 80 cents bushel It pays to grind I
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, man is alWays willing IN refer