Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 59, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 December 1908 — STOCK FOOD FOR PIGS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

STOCK FOOD FOR PIGS.

Some Experiments With Commercial and Homemade Feed. In a report from South Dakota to the Experiment Station Record, Washington, the subjoined about stock food for pigs appears: • In the first of the two series of tests reported, which included two years, five commercial stock feeds with ground corn and barley were fed in comparison with ground corn and barley one to one. The feeding period in the first year covered ninety-two days and in the second sixty-three days, and the lots included from eight to ten pigs. In every case the pigs had access to rape pasture. On the check ration the average daily gain per pig for the two years was 1.1 pounds, the feed required per pound of gain 6.19 pounds and the cost of a pound of gain 4 cents. On the ration including stock feeds the dally gain ranged from 1.17 pounds per head to 1.34 pounds, the grain eaten per pound of gain from 4.54 to 4.86 pounds and the cost of a pound of gain from 4.10 to 4.58 cents. In the second series of tests cornmeal was compared with cornmeal and a commercial stock feed and with cornmeal and a homemade stock feed, using three lots of eight pigs each, fed for sixty-one days. Ail the lots had the run of blue grass pasture in addition to the grain or grain and stock feed. The total gain was 514 pounds on cornmeal alone, 483 pounds on cornmeal and commercial stock feed and 551 pounds on cornmeal and homemade stock feed. The feed required per pound of gain in the three cases was 4.91, 5.49 and 5.11 pounds and the cost of a pound of gain 3.85, 4.69 and 4.4 cents. From the aboye table it will be seen that it required more pounds of feed for 100 pounds of gain in this experiment than it did for the average of the lots In the previous experiment. This can be accounted for from the fact that the rape pasture furnished a more succulent feed than did the blue grass pasture. From the data presented In this bulletin the reader must draw bls own conclusions as to the value of any of the stock foods tried. The homemade stock feed, according to the authors, was made up as follows: Gentian, two pounds, cost 50 cents; ginger, one pound, cost 40 cents; sodium bicarbonate, one pound, cost 10 cents; fenugreek, five tenths of a pound, cost 10 cents. Purchase these materials at a drug store and have them mixed into fine powders. Then mix with five pounds of common salt and twenty-five pounds of shorts. This compound will cost about 4% cents per pound. For the pig mix a pound with every fortyeight pounds of grain. Pasturage For Pigs. Thirty shoats averaging fifty-two pounds in weight were divided as nearly equal as possible into three lots o? ten each. Lot No. 1 was fed on a grain mixture of shorts one-half, cornmeal one-fourth and Kaffir cornmeal one-fourth in a dry lot. The other two lots were fed the same grain ration, but one received rape pasture and the other alfalfa pasture in addition. Each lot was given what grain the hogs would eat up clean, and each had access to water and ashes. The gains of the three lots were very nearly equal. The dry lot consumed 557 pounds, or 70 pounds for every 100 pounds of grain, more gain than the pasture lots. The lot on rape required one acre of pasture, while the alfalfa lot used a trifle less than one-half acre. Farm Labor In New York State. The American Agriculturist contains brief statements from several farmers in different parts of New York state relating to the farm labor problem. The general trend of the replies indicates that good farm labor is scarce, that wages for day labor range from $1.25 to $1.50 per day and monthly wages from S2O to $33 with board for ten hours’ wqrk per day and that the scarcity of work in cities is bringing back to the farm those who were born and brought up thereon. The encouragement of the immigration of farm labor from the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden and other European countries Is advocated as a remedy. Jack For Raising Buggy. To make the implement shown in the accompanying illustration use two pieces of oak 22 by 4 by 1 and one piece 15 by 4 by 1. Nail the smaller piece between the larger ones at one end. To the lower end nail two pieces of 12 by 4 by 1, one on each side of the three pieces already joined for a supporting base. Three inches from the top of the boards bore a half inch hole. Take another piece of wood 28 by 1 by 1%

•nd bore a bole in It seven inches from one end. Place it between the two boards and bolt with a four inch bolt. Tack a notched piece of wood about five inches long to the short end of this lever. About eight inches frouf the other end fasten loosely a piece of •trap iron nineteen inches long whicn has a hook on the opposite end. Drive two nails in the upright boards to regulate the height, and, says Prairie Farmer, you have a convenient, light •nd Inexpensive buggy jack.