410 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



This practice permits the cutting of the usual number of crops 

 of hay, though the yield of hay is of course reduced. 



Food Character of Alfalfa. Alfalfa not only furnishes a great 

 amount of pasture, but it is of a character that goes to make 

 bone and muscle. It belongs to the leguminous family of plants, 

 as do the clovers, the cowpea, the field pea, the soybean, and the 

 vetches, and, while it is furnishing this valuable food, it is add- 

 ing fertility to the land. Either alfalfa pasture or alfalfa hay, 

 with corn, forms very nearly a balanced ration for animals; and, 

 while it is better to have a grain ration fed with it to hogs as well 

 as other animals, a healthier, thriftier hog can be raised on alfalfa 

 alone than on corn alone. Many instances are found where hogs 

 have been raised on alfalfa alone. One Oklahoma farmer mar- 

 keted in December, 1905, 61 head of spring pigs eight months 

 old that averaged 171 pounds, which had run from the time they 

 were little pigs with their mothers on 15 acres of alfalfa without 

 any grain. They sold on the market for 5% cents a pound. 

 This made the cash value of the alfalfa pasture about $38.35 per 

 acre. As will be seen, this is a light pasturing, as there were only 

 about 4 pigs per acre besides the brood sows. 



Feeding Practices and Actual Results. As already stated, it is 

 much better economy to furnish a grain ration with the pasture, 

 as it results in better gains and better product. One man esti- 

 mates that it takes from one-half to one-third less corn on alfalfa 

 pasture than on a straight grain ration to make a hog ready for 

 market. Many let the hogs run on alfalfa until about six 

 months old, by which time they reach a weight of 75 to 125 

 pounds, feeding just a little grain; then they feed heavily for 

 about two months and sell the hogs at eight months old weigh- 

 ing 200 to 225 pounds. One farmer, who raises about a thousand 

 hogs a year and who in one year sold $11,200 worth of hogs, 

 makes a practice of raising his hogs on alfalfa pasture until about 

 eight months old, feeding one ear of corn per head daily. He 

 then feeds heavily on corn for a month or two and sells at an 

 average weight of 200 to 225 pounds. Another man feeds all the 

 corn and slop the pigs will clean up, all the while running them 

 on alfalfa pasture, and sells at six to eight months old at weights 

 of 250 to 300 pounds. Another, who raises about 1,000 head a 

 year, feeds all the corn the pigs will eat, beginning shortly after 

 weaning and continuing until the hogs are sold at ten to eleven 

 months old, averaging about 275 pounds. 



Still another farmer, from weaning time (two months old) 

 until eight months old, feeds the pigs nothing but dry corn on 

 alfalfa pasture, averaging about one-half gallon of corn 



