292 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



new patch every two or three weeks. The fore part of May I 

 turned a hundred and five pigs and twelve sows into the first 

 patch. In about three weeks I take them off that and put them, 

 on the second patch. By the time I get to the last patch the 

 first one is again ready for pasture. The old stuff can get a 

 living on the pasture. The young pigs get a portion of corn 

 meal. In feeding corn meal you save five per cent of the feed 

 by grinding. I mix the feed into a mush, not slop, so it will 

 not run and feed all they want of it and then take it away. 

 Then I give them milk, and a good warm separator milk beats 

 it all, and the pigs gain. Without the green feed I would 

 not advise feeding very much corn to a young animal unless 

 feeding for show." 



In answer to a question by one of the gentleman as to- 

 inoculation O'f the soil Prof. Curtiss said : "About the best 

 thing we have found to inoculate with is to have good soil and 

 inoculate with barn yard manure and good cultivation. There 

 are cases when inoculation will prove of good benefit but 

 if you have first class soil and good conditions you do not 

 need inoculation. It is important also when you are starting- 

 to fit a piece of ground to alfalfa to have it in a fine state of 

 fertility. You will stand better chances of making alfalfa grow 

 if you will put it in the best soil you have. Alfalfa will often 

 fail on a piece of soil in poor condition when if you will manure- 

 that soil well your alfalfa will be a complete success and you 

 need not give yourself any uneasiness about the condition of 

 your soil or inoculation if your soil will grow seventy-five or 

 one hundred bushels of corn per acre." 



Some one asked if alfalfa is any more liable to winter 

 kill if it has been grown four or five years than the 

 first year and also when it is safe to pasture, and Mr. 

 Curtiss said : "I do not know that it is less likely to win- 

 ter kill if you get it well started the first year. If you 

 have sufficient rain fall, your ground in good condition and 

 get a good growth the first season, I believe it will go througb 

 the first year about as well as any time. I think it is generally 

 conceded that it should not be pastured very closely too early 



