CLOVER CULTURE. 103 



It will be readily seen that with certain ends to accom- 

 plish, as for example, the growth of the pig from fifty pounds 

 weight to a hundred, where a ratio of from 1:4 to 1:5 is re- 

 quired, and with no feed on hand except corn with a ratio of 

 1:9.3 ( see table 3.) and a deficiency in bone material, besides, 

 there can be but one result: the frame becomes deficient in 

 bone material and the pig fine in bone, chuffyand small; and 

 no amount of corn fed, even with its attendant waste, can 

 properly develop its form. It becomes, under excessive corn 

 feeding a globe of fat, fit subject for every disease and a source 

 -of continual disappointment to its unwise owner. 



If a horse is to be kept for hard work, involving great 

 waste of muscular tissue, and it is fed solely on corn, which is 

 -deficient in material adapted to supply the waste, it is cleat 

 that it must be fed much more corn than under other circum- 

 stances would be necessary. Hence, the preference for oats 

 as feed for work horses, and of corn as a food for fattening 

 mature cattle or hogs. In the last case, the waste of muscular 

 tissue is slight, while the end in view is the storing away oi 

 surplus fat in the system. For this nothing is better than corn. 



The term "pigs in the clover" has become a synonym for 

 abundance, while feeding an exclusive corn diet without clo- 

 ver to growing pigs is everywhere condemned by good farm- 

 ers as unprofitable, and hence in their experience is a waste 

 of corn. How to avoid this and like wastes by the use of 

 clover is the problem now under consideration. 



In the early stages of their growth, all grasses have a 

 large amount of nitrogenous compounds. The dry matter, 

 for example, of clover cut when from three to four inches 

 high, approximates the nutritive value of oil meal, hence a pas- 

 ture of mixed grasses in May and the early part of June forms 

 an almost ideal ration. As these grasses mature, the propor- 

 tion of carbonaceous compounds or carbohydrates increases rel- 

 atively. Clover alone contains a sufficiently large proportion 

 of nitrogen to make it valuable in balancing up rations. We 

 now inquire how this clover can be used to balance up the car- 

 bonaceous foods, and that, too, by any farmer who has even 

 a general idea of the different elements in the supply of food 

 at his command. 



Nearly every farmer in the West has a field of cornstalks 

 which he wishes to use to the best advantage. Many farmers 

 are not prepared to build silos and many others have not the 

 labor at their command at a price which they believe justifies 

 them in cutting up the corn and using it as fodder. It re- 



