Pastures for Hogs. 163 



alfalfa, furnish the nitrogenous pasture, but a home grown grain to feed 

 with corn is not supplied by either of these two crops. There is, how- 

 ever, another legume that grows quickly, builds up the land and fur- 

 nishes a form of protein that is available at the time of year when it 

 is most needed for finishing hogs. This plant is the cowpea. It re- 

 quires from 70 to 100 days to mature, and if planted May 15 to June 

 1, will be ready to pasture by the middle of August or sooner, when 

 the first pods are beginning to ripen. The value of this plant as a 

 forage crop for hogs is just beginning to be recognized by the farmers 

 of this State. It has been grown in the southern part of the State for 

 several years, and, to some extent, in the northern half, but its great 

 value as a hog-fattener is not yet realized except in the extreme south- 

 ern portions of the State where they are generally grown. An acre 

 of well-grown cowpeas turned on when the pods are ripening, will, as 

 was learned from the farmers using the forage, pasture 15 to 25 

 100-pound hogs for from one to two months in the fall. Cowpeas are 

 also valuable for sowing in the corn at the last cultivation and then 

 turning hogs in when the corn is past "roasting ear." 



The cowpea is a southern plant and will not stand too early plant- 

 ing. It should be sown either broadcast or drilled when the ground 

 is warm, from the last part of May to July 10th in Central Missouri, 

 and varying as the latitude changes. If to be grown with corn, sow 

 at the last plowing of corn. The amount of seed required per acre 

 when sown alone is from three-fourths to one-half bushel per acre. In 

 the corn, one-third to one-half bushel is the usual amount. For hog 

 pasture it is recommended that they be grown in rows and cultivated 

 in order to form more seed for the hogs. 



The value of cowpea pasture for hogs being fed corn is shown 

 by a trial at the Alabama Experiment Station,* where a full feed of 

 corn was given for 42 days to 50 pound hogs running on cowpea pasture 

 when the pods were ripening. One lot of three pigs was fed corn 

 alone in a dry lot, while the other, containing an equal number of pigs, 

 was in the cowpea forage, the results being as follows : 



Corn alone 



Corn on cowpeas . 



Daily 

 Gain. 



Grain per 



100 lbs. 



gain. 



586 

 307 



♦Alabama Bulletin 93. 



