EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 215 



two years, sugar beets and mangolds have been grown for hog forage, the plan 

 followed being to turn the hogs into the lots early in the fall and allow them 

 to do their own harvesting. Some supplementary grain was fed while the pigs 

 were consuming roots because of their inability to consume sufficient of these to 

 get the required amount of dry matter. 



Test of 1903. — Lot No. 4 Fig. 12, previously used as 'a hog run, was sown to 

 sugar beets May 12, 1903. This lot was spring plowed and did not break up 

 good and a portion was water-logged late into the season. After the ground was 

 prepared, it was marked off into rows two feet apart and sowed with a hand 

 garden drill; the time required for these two operations was two hours time of 

 one man. The crop was hand wheel hoed as soon as it came up and as often 

 thereafter as ncessary. The roots were thinned to eight inches in the row and 

 grew to a much larger size than those desired for factory use. 



On September 29th, sixteen hogs weighing 2,049 pounds, were turned in upon 

 the sugar beets. These were removed November 7th, at the weight of 2,633 pounds, 

 having gained 584 pounds. During these forty days, however, 350 pounds 

 middlings and 1,205 pounds middlings and corn meal, equal parts, was fed to 

 these hogs. According to W. A. Henry's "Feeds and Feeding" the meal fed would 

 nearly account for the maintenance of these hogs, 1.88 pounds of meal being sup- 

 plied each day per 100 pounds live weight, or the 1,555 pounds meal fed would 

 account for 3451/^ lbs. of the increase and part of the maintenance, allowing 

 4Vo pounds meal per pound gain. And the sugar beets would account for a part 

 of the maintenance and the production of 238.5 pounds pork. Thus, if one-third 

 acre produced a gain of 238.5 pounds, one acre would produce 715.5 pounds, which 

 valued at 5 cents would equal $37.77, return from one acre of beets in the form 

 of pig feed. 



Test of 190.'/. — On May 7, 1904, lot No. 3 Fig. 12, which has produced peas and 

 oats in 1903. was sown to sugar beets and mangolds, there being eleven rows of 

 each. This crop was cultivated in about the same manner as that grown the 

 previous year. In order to get at least some idea of the relative yields of the 

 mangolds and sugar beets, the two adjacent rows of each were pulled, topped 

 and both roots and tops weighed the day before the experiment began; these were 

 afterward thrown back to the pigs. These two rows of roots were 308 feet long 

 and the distance between them was two feet. The row of mangolds weighed 

 1,060 pounds and their tops 430 pounds, which estimated gives 37.4 tons roots and 

 15.2 tons tops per acre. The one row of sugar beets weighed 560 pounds and 

 their tops 5io pounds; the estimates from these figures give 19.7 tons beets and 

 18 tons tops per acre. We recall the fact that these lots, which had been hog- 

 yards for years previous, were very rich, the conditions being especially conliucive 

 to the growth of tops 



On October 3d, twelve cross-bred hogs weighing 1,329.75 pounds, and four pure 

 breds weighing 438.5 pounds, making a total of 1,778.25 pounds, were turned in 

 upon the roots where they remained till December 12th. The ground, of course, 

 froze up before this but the then remaining roots were pulled, piled and covered 

 so that the hogs still had access to all they could eat. On December 12th, the 

 twelve cross-bred hogs weighed 1,840.5 pounds, and the four pure breds 537 

 pounds. (The light gain of the four was due, in some measure, to the uncongenial 

 spirit manifested them by the twelve.) In 70 days, therefore, these hogs gained 

 598.25 pounds, but 752 pounds middlings and 752 pounds corn meal had also been 

 fed them during this time, or about one and one-fifths pounds meal mixture per 

 day to each one hundred pounds live weight of hogs turned in the lot, or about 

 one-third grain ration daily. Allowing 4% pounds meal for maintenance and the 

 production of one pound pork, the 1,504 pounds meal would be responsible for 

 334.2 pounds of the gain; this would leave a part of the maintenance and the 

 production of 246 pounds of pork to the credit of one-third acre of roots, or 792 

 pounds pork per acre, worth at 5 cents, $39.60. In this last experiment the pro- 

 portion of meal furnished to the live weight of the hogs was less than in the 

 first case. 



It was observed that the pigs consumed the mangolds first, as shown by Illu- 

 stration No. Jf,- it may have been because they could be secured more readily. 

 Owing to the fact that the mangoids stood up high out of the ground, they were 

 soon tipped over and left exposed to the sun during the day and the frosts at 

 night; for this reason and the fact that sugar beets are less easily damaged by 

 frost, it is fortunate that the mangolds were consumed first. Pigs scour con- 



