122 



FEEDING EXPERIMENTS WITH COWPEAS. 



COW PEA PASTURAGE FOPv S HO ATS. 



September 8, 1897, six Essex shoats, all of the same litter 

 and averaging 50.1 pounds each, were divided into two lots, 

 one lot weighing 152.7 pounds, the other 148.2. Lot I, which 

 was slightly the heavier, was confined to a dry lot and fed as 

 much shelled corn as the shoats would eat. Lot II was con- 

 fined by hurdles to a field of cowpeas of the variety Won- 

 derful or Unknown. 



The soil of this field was sandy upland of a better grade 

 than the ordinary upland soils of this locality. The stand of 

 cowpeas was thin and the rows were about four feet apart. 

 Nevertheless the yield of dry peas on-the portion of the field 

 from which peas were picked, was at the rate of 13.2 bushels 

 per acre, which is considerably above the ordinary yield. 



When the pigs were placed in the field the leaves" were 

 all green and only about one-half of the peas bad taken on 

 the color of maturity. The other pcds were all green, but 

 most of them had attained full size. As long as the leaflets 

 continued succulent and green, they were readily eaten. In 

 the latter half of the experiment only the seed was eaten. 



Before the beginning of the experiment proper, the usual 

 preliminary period of a week was allowed for the pigs to get 

 accustomed to their rations. Both lots received hardwood 

 ashes and salt regularly. 



During the 6 weeks covered by this portion of the exper- 

 iment, the results were as follows : 



