422 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



ried on at this farm to determine how many pounds of pork an acre of 

 clover pasture will produce. In 1900 over 100 fattening hogs were weighed 

 into the twenty-acre clover field and an account kept of all the corn fed. 

 At the close of the season the hogs were sold and the value of the corn 

 fed was deducted from the receipts. The difference represented the cash 

 value of the clover pasture and in this experiment was equivalent to 465 

 pounds of pork per acre. In 1901 an experiment conducted along the same 

 lines gave a return of 366 pounds of pork per acre. These figures are in- 

 teresting, for they show that it is possible to secure a large cash income 

 from land even in years when it is growing a crop intended primarily as 

 a source of available plant food. The third year the clover sod is plowed 

 in the spring and the field planted to soy beans and artichokes. In 1901 

 six acres of well-matured soy beans were pastured with hogs. One hun- 

 dred and thirty-two spring pigs were turned in the field about September 

 1. They ate the beans greedily and gleaned the field in a few weeks. 

 They were exceedingly thrifty and made a gain equivalent to 647 pounds 

 of pork per acre. This year thirteen acres of soy beans were raised and 

 pastured. When the records of this experiment are made up doubtless 

 they will show returns quite as remarkable and satisfactory as those of 

 the previous season. 



Mr. Rowe prepares the ground for soy beans just as he does for corn 

 and about May 20 plants one-half bushel of Early Yellow beans with a 

 beet drill in rows twenty inches apart. The crop is usually cultivated about 

 three times with a one-horse cultivator and little or no hand work is re- 

 quired. The Early Yellow variety yields from twenty-five to thirty bushels 

 per acre and is ready to pasture the latter part of August. Four or five 

 acres of artichokes are raised each year and furnish a splendid food for 

 the hogs through the fall and winter months. The hogs do their own har- 

 vesting and are benefited by the exercise required to root out the tubers 

 The fourth year corn is raised following the soy beans. It is not sur- 

 prising to find in these fields, which have grown several successive 

 leguminous crops and been pastured summer and winter with hundreds of 

 hogs, corn of the highest type and quality yielding seventy to ninety-five 

 bushels per acre. A pure-bred variety of corn is raised and the demand 

 for seed always exceeds the supply. 



This is a hog farm. Twenty Duroc-Jersey brood sows are kept. The 

 average number of pigs raised per sow for three years past has been 

 eight. The pigs are farrowed in April and May and are turned off at fif- 

 teen or sixteen months of age weighing from 350 to 400 pounds. Permanent 

 hog houses do not find favor on this farm. The modern individual farrow- 

 ing pens are used. They are located in ample blue grass lots and afford 

 comfortable and clean quarters for the sows and pigs. The sows raise 

 one litter each year. After the pigs wean themselves the sows are fed to 

 become thrifty and strong but not fat and heavy. An extensive pasture 

 range and muscle-building foods are the factors which lead to success 

 in carrying brood sows safely from year to year. This system makes it 

 possible for the owner to keep a record of his own brood sows and turn 

 off such as do not prove good mothers. It is advisable also to select for 



