EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 217 



pounds gain, requiring 26 pounds less, though the total amount of food required was 

 43 pounds more. This set also ate 219 less food and cost 12 cents per head less for 

 the food eaten during the experiment. 



* Beach, in bulletin on Montana Swine Feeding, concludes : "Alfalfa, or clover pasture, 

 with a little grain in the summer affords conditions for cheapest growth and greatest 

 profit. 



Kansas Press Bulletin No. 25 gives results where alfalfa was fed to hogs in con- 

 nection with grain proving that alfalfa hay also gave a variety to the hay, making 

 it more appetizing and inducing the hogs to eat more grain. The hay fed hogs ate 

 more grain and gained more for each bushel eaten. In a pasturing experiment where 

 some corn was fed with the alfalfa pasture, it was concluded that after deducting the 

 probable gain from the corn, the gain per acre from the pasture was 776 pounds of 

 pork. "These facts indicate that to produce pork most cheaply the Kansas farmer must 

 have alfalfa pasture in summer and alfalfa hay in winter." 



Morrow and Bone, in Oklahoma Experiment Station Report, 1900, conclude: 

 "Alfalfa is excellent pasture for hogs. Pigs will make some gains with no other feed. 

 Excellent gains when fed grain while on alfalfa. Continuous pasturing will injure 

 and may kill alfalfa. With rare exceptions, alfalfa should not be pastured the year 

 it is sown. 



Bulletin 104, Kansas Experiment Station, Cottrell concludes as follows: "Alfalfa hay 

 is one of the best feeds for sheep that is grown and both green and dry alfalfa are 

 valuable feeds for poultry. On account of its effect on their skin and hair, alfalfa 

 is one of the best feeds for cattle being fitted for the show ring. Alfalfa makes good 

 pasfcurage for horses. Horsemen report a gain of six pounds per day per head pastured 

 on alfalfa and given a light ration of corn or kafir corn." 



EXPERIMENTS IN GROWING. 



In the spring of 1897, on May 15, three plots of sand lucerne were sown on the 

 Experiment Station grounds; one, an area of one and one-fourth acres, on a rolling, 

 sandy field with gravelly subsoil, where 25 pounds of seed were used. This plot was sown 

 adjacent to one on which the common alfalfa was sown at the same time. The yields 

 from this plot have never been carefully recorded, although the sand lucerne is still 

 growing on the plot, and has annually produced one crop of good hay. The remaining 

 growth either being pastured or left to mulch the ground. The alfalfa grown adjacent 

 to this was so badly winter killed that it has been plowed up and the ground used for 

 other purposes. There are a few small areas in the sand lucerne plot which have 

 suffered from winter killing. 



The two other plots sown to sand lucerne were on some of the lightest sandy soil to 

 be found on the College grounds. These plots have been carefully watched and every 

 pound of the crop has been carefully weighed and recorded. The larger of the plots, 

 containing one-sixth of an acre, has been used exclusively for harvests of cured hay. 

 The other was harvested as hay in 1898 and 1899, used for pasturage experiment in 

 1900, and tried for growing seed in 1901. The yield per acre from three crops on this 

 plot in 1S9S was 5,917 pounds, and in 1S99, from four crops, 8,480 pounds to the acre. 

 The plot from which cured hay has been harvested each year has given the following 

 results : 



Harvest of 1898, three crops, 6,800 pounds per acre. 



Harvest of 1S99, four crops, 10,580 pounds per acre. 



Harvest of 1900, four crops, 12,310 pounds per acre. 



Harvest of 1901, four crops, 13,839 pounds per acre. 



The dates of cutting the above have averaged about June 10, July 12, August 15, and 

 October 1. 



The crop of 1901 furnishes the following table. Immediately after each harvest 

 samples of the cured hay were taken and carried to the chemical laboratory, where, under 

 the direction of Dr. R. C. Kedzie, the analyses for feeding values and fertilizing ele- 

 ments-were carefully made. 



* Montana Experiment Station Bulletin 14. 

 28 



