ALFALFA FOR SWINE 233 



greater vitality and ability to resist disease than would 

 otherwise be the case. In commenting upon this, Henry 

 Wallace gives the following as a result of investiga- 

 tions made of methods of raising hogs in the Platte val- 

 ley of Missouri : 



"The brood sows are kept through the winter on a 

 ration of five pounds of chopped alfalfa hay and one 

 pound of corn. The summer feed of sows and pigs is 

 from one to one and one-half pounds of corn per day and 

 as much alfalfa as they care to eat. Hogs grown in this 

 way do not make as rapid gains as are made with a 

 heavier corn ration, the gain being about one-sixth 

 pound per day for the first 200 or 250 days, the cost 

 ])eing- not far from two cents per pound, with corn at 40 

 cents per bushel. 



"What particularly impressed us, however, with hogs 

 grown in this way, was the tendency to differentiate in 

 type from those grown under the conditions prevailing 

 in Iowa and Illinois and the clover country of Kansas 

 and Nebraska. These hogs are longer in the body, set 

 up a little liiglier on their legs, partake somewhat of the 

 bacon type, and unquestionably have much greater vital- 

 ity and disease-resisting power. It will not be a g-reat 

 while until the term "alfalfa" hog means a different type 

 from that grown east. In fact, we believe in time to 

 come, when the railroads master the problem of trans- 

 l)orting hogs without danger of contagion, that quite a 

 per cent of the hogs of the country will be grown west 

 of the corn belt, where alfalfa thrives better, and shipped 

 east to cattle feeders and farmers who have more corn 

 than hogs. These hogs, when put on a heavy corn diet, 



