on and off the cars, thereby entailing considerable loss, which falls upon the producer of course. This weakness of bone may be taken as indicating anything but a strong, vigorous frame and a good constitution.

A third point of great importance is that we are gradually losing trade, because our people eat less and less pork; even when they do not forego this food entirely, there is still complaint that it is too largely made up of fat, and has too little flavor. If we are to keep up this business as its profits when well managed merit, some attention must be paid to the character of the product as well as to the quantity produced.

THE PURPOSE OF THE EXPERIMENT.

The experiments of Prof. Sanborn of the Missouri Agricultural College as detailed in Bulletins Nos. 9, 14 and 19 of that college show that the character of the feed has a wonderful influence on the composition of the meat in the carcass of the pig. Believing work of this nature to be of the highest importance, and that the labors of this indefatigable worker should have confirmation if possible, an experiment of similar nature to his was undertaken.

Will the character of the food influence the character of the bone and muscle of the hog? is the primary question we set out to answer.

It will be seen on a little reflection that our early trials must be of a scientific rather than a practical nature, and we ask of the reader that he bear this fact in mind in reading of our work done; we must insist on this view of the case or what is here reported will not be properly understood.

Once knowing that foods of different compositions do affect the frame and flesh of animals differently and how, and why, we are in position to go ahead and build up a better system of swine husbandry than we now have.

Knowing corn to be a universal hog food and often used almost exclusively by many of our farmers, and further knowing that chemistry shows that corn is excessively rich in the carbhydrates or heat and fat formers, while it is low

or poor in protien and ash elements which go to make up bone and muscle, we thought to feed it exclusively to one lot of hogs that we might see the effects it produces. To another lot it was thought best to feed a ration excessively rich in protein which makes it the opposite of the first ration. To this end we made up a ration of shorts, sweet skim milk and a little dried blood. Dried blood is not often used as a food, but is wonderfully rich as may be supposed in the same elements as dried beef.

Dried blood, skim milk and shorts are each comparatively rich in protein, so it will be seen our feed for the second lot was rich in muscle making food, and if there is anything in what the chemists tell us about foods our pigs having such widely different rations, should show it in their bodies if the character of the food makes any difference.

DETAILS OF THE EXPERIMENT.

fed

Out of a litter of eight pigs six were selected which were even in size and form, for the trial when they were 100 days old. Up to the beginning of the trial the pigs were all alike from the same trough a mixture consisting of shorts, corn meal, skim milk and butter milk. The pigs were one half Jersey Red and half Poland China in breed. At the beginning of the trial the six were divided into two lots of three each, and to Lot I was fed a ration consisting of one part dried blood, six parts shorts, fourteen parts sweet skim milk by weight. To Lot II was fed all the fine ground corn meal they could properly consume. Water was freely pro Ivided for each lot, and each had the run of a small yard back of the feeding pen in which exercise could be taken; all went on with remarkable uniformity from first to last

with no accident of any kind to either lot during the w period of 136 days.

hole

The following shows in a condensed form the amount of ood consumed by the two lots during the trial of 136 days:

The following analyses are given as representative of the constituents of the food articles used in the trial. The dried blood was analyzed with the results here given; the other analyses are taken from work done by the Station on similar products and can not vary enough from those actually fed to make any difference in the discussion.

Chemical Composition of Feeding Materials used in the Trial.

Coming now to the actual amount of food matter each lot was furnished we may state it thus by taking the average digestibility of each article:

* The fat has been multiplied by 2 5 and added to get these figures.

Nutritive ratio, about 1 to 2 for Lot I.

*1,193.98

Nutritive ratio, about 1 to 7.7 for Lot II.

It will be noticed that the total amount of digestible matter fed Lot II is in excess of that fed Lot I, but nevertheless it is mainly carbonaceous in character.

A nutritive ratio so narrow as 1 to 2 (one part protein to two of carbhydrates) is out of all proportion in practice, and as protein compounds are always costly in the markets, such a ration is necessarily an expensive one. In an experiment like this, however, the question of cost of food is of secondary importance. The ratio of 1 to 7.7 is wider than the German experiments show to be best for fattening swine.

It will be seen that our protein fed pigs gained considerably faster than those fed on corn meal alone. The giving of a greater variety of food tended somewhat to this result

probably. It is wonderful that Lot II lived so long and gained so much on a single variety of food. This is a fine illustration of how valuable corn is as a food article, and what remarkable results came from feeding it even in an improper way.

WHAT THE DRESSED CARCASSES SHOWED.

The hogs were slaughtered November 8th, a skilled butcher assisting, every operation being conducted with great care and precision.

After taking the live weight of each animal it was killed by slow bleeding, and the blood caught and weighed. The viscera were taken out and each organ weighed and the dressed hogs hung up to cool and stiffen.

Upon being taken to the block each dressed hog was laid on his back and first the head was severed, next the body was cut square across between the fifth and sixth ribs and again at the loin or small of the back. A painter was employed to sketch the appearance and disposition of the fat and lean meat as exposed by the cuts. Fearing the painter was not exact enough, a photographer was employed for the same purpose and we were thus enabled to preserve for future reference and study, that which would have otherwise soon been lost. The three pages of lithographs which are herewith presented, show the proportion and disposition of the fat and lean in some of the cuts. We present six illustrations, three of each lot. The first plate shows what we found on severing the heads of the first hog of each lot. The second plate shows in the same way the cuts made between the fifth and sixth ribs of the hogs, numbered "two" in each lot; while the last plate shows the loin cut of the hogs numbered "three" of each lot.

Having secured the paintings and photographs we proceeded to remove all the external fat from the carcasses, separating it from the lean and weighing.

Next we dissected out the two powerful muscles (the Ilio spinalis of Chauveau) lying along the back on either side the spinous processes. These show plainly in the rib cuts.