ALFALFA FOR SWINE. 403 



der to keep the animal in health. If its intestines 

 are vigorous then it may resist cholera germs, even 

 if they are taken in. The importance of this point 

 can not be over estimated. Millions of germs are 

 about us, germs of all sorts. All animals take them 

 in continually. When there is a vigorous, healthful 

 intestinal tract these germs sometimes, even the most 

 virulent, are either digested or passed off, the animal 

 remaining unscathed. When there is a weak and 

 sickly intestinal tract the germ finds lodgment and 

 disease follows. There can hardly be any other ex- 

 planation of the fact that cholera seldom troubles 

 hogs rightly managed and kept in summer on alfalfa 

 pasture, in winter in part on alfalfa hay. 



Fine Alfalfa Pork. This matter is so essential 

 that I here present part of a paper read by one of 

 the Government inspectors before the Kansas State 

 Breeders' meeting at the Kansas agricultural col- 

 lege : 



As these alfalfa hogs came down the alley to the scales, they 

 were certainly hogs for the packer, raised at a profit thrifty 

 and ready to yield good-grade pork, for a good price was realized. 

 You could notice that they were well up on their expanded feet; 

 their height, length, and bones all rounded out with even fat, 

 covered with a glossy, glistening, heavy coat of hair, and keen 

 eyes alert. Their backs were straight, broad and well curved 

 into long, deep sides that had plump, pointed even-shaped hams 

 at one end and arched shoulders at the other. 



On post-mortem we did not find a single parasite in livers, 

 lungs, kidneys or intestines, as we do in hogs grown on corn and 

 cereals. Their lungs remained expanded, that is, inflated, when 

 cast down in the gut chute; did not collapse, and were of a per- 

 fect pink. Their stomachs were larger and did not recoil or con- 

 tract readily, and same was observed of the whole intestinal tube. 



The man who pulled the intestines from the ruffle fat for cas- 



