FORAGE CROPS THAT MAKE GOOD 121 



wheat, soybeans and cowpeas. Generally speaking, then, from the 

 standpoint of the cornbelt, we would place the pastures in the order 

 of their merit, as follows: Alfalfa, rape, red clover, bluegrass, 

 first-year sweet clover, and after that we would depend on the other 

 crops mentioned. 



Selecting Forage Crops. In order to get an adequate idea as 

 to how to select a forage crop, it is essential that we know just what 

 should be the requirements of the ideal pasture and forage crop. 



From the idealistic standpoint, therefore, the forage crop should 

 be first and above all adaptable to the local soil and climate; it 

 should be palatable, highly relished by the swine ; it should give a 

 heavy yield of highly digestible protein of good supplementary 

 quality; it should furnish a considerable quantity of mineral ele- 

 ments of the right sort ; it should furnish considerable of fat soluble 

 A, this being essential to life and well-being ; it should also carry 

 fat soluble B, and the anti-scorbutics or scurvy specifics; it should 

 also be low in crude fibre, because swine cannot handle much crude 

 fibre to advantage ; it should have a narrow nutritive ratio, that is, 

 a large proportion of digestible protein in relation to the starchy 

 or fat-forming materials ; it should be somewhat succulent, although 

 not excessively so ; it should have a long pasturage season, coming 

 early particularly, staying green during the hot, dry summer 

 and remaining green and palatable late in the fall, even after 

 heavy freezes come (better still if it can furnish .green feed 

 during the winter, like does rape sometimes but more particularly 

 like does wheat) ; it should be able to endure trampling and 

 ordinary grazing; it should be permanent, or at least maintain 

 a stand for a reasonable number of years, like bluegrass or_ 

 alfalfa; it should be seeded with relative ease; it should not cost 

 too much to get a stand, nor take too long ; it should be capable of 

 furnishing good pasture at any time from April to December (rape 

 is pretty good, in that it can be used as an emergency crop and is 

 ready for pasturing a couple of months after seeding) ; and it 

 should preferably be of a leguminous character ; that is, it should 

 have the ability of gathering nitrogen from the air and thus help 

 in keeping up the- fertility. 



Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on the viewpoint, we 

 have no single crop that will supply all of these essentials. We have 

 certain crops that supply many of them and all of them are sup- 

 plied in some one of the various crops. There is one crop that 

 stands out above all others, however, in supplying the majority of 

 these, and that crop is alfalfa. 



Alfalfa Pasture. Of all the crops that grow in the northern or 

 in the southern or even in the eastern states of America, alfalfa 

 from the swine-forage standpoint stands out as the peer of them all. 

 Alfalfa is a heavy yielder of the kind of constituents that are 

 needed to balance the ordinary corn ration. It balances the corn of 

 the cornbelt. and the barley of the west, and the rye of the north. 



