OATS FOR FEEDING PIGS.

Patea Mail, 4 December 1880, Page 3

OATS FOR FEEDING PIGS.

The abundance of the oat crop, coupled with the low price for this cereal, has caused farmers to enquire as to the value for oats for feeding pigs, and the relative value of wheat and barley for the same purpose. In answering questions of this kind there are many points Avhich must first be ascertained, such, for instance, as the price of the various cereals, weight per bushel of each, their component parts, the breed of pigs, and general management. Given wheat at 3s fid per bushel of GOlbs, barley at 3s Gd per bushel of 50lbs, and oats at Is 6d per bushel of 4Glbs ; (according to some agricultural chemists, wheat contains 4Slbs of nutritive matter per bushel ; barley 321bs per bushel of OOlbs ; and oats, 221bs per bushel of 401bs), Accordingly the same money’s worth of oats should produce about equal results with wheat, and considerably more than the same money’s worth of barley. The American hog feeders find that it takes Dibs of Indian corn steeped in water to produce lib net of pork. Experiment has shown that it takes of crushed barley to produce lib net of pork, which at 3s fid per bushel for the barley, would make the pork cost 4-i-d per pound. Assuming that the analysis given above is tolerably correct, the result would be more favorable to the oats as feeding stuff, owing of course to the low price.