238 FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



grain fed may be peas, whether fed before or after the lamb- 

 ing season. The same mixture is also good for feeding 

 lambs, and if the lambs are being forced for the early mar- 

 ket, the addition of cracked corn will improve the grain ra- 

 tion. On certain plateaus of the Rocky mountain states, the 

 fattening of sheep and lambs on mature peas grazed down 

 by the sheep, is becoming an industry of no little impor- 

 tance. Enough oats are sown with the peas to sustain them. 

 The dry autumns in the areas named, make such feeding en- 

 tirely feasible and with but little waste. 



For swine, peas have special adaptation. A mixture of 

 peas and oats ground, or peas and bran soaked from six to 

 12 hours according to the weather, furnish a grand food 

 for brood sows nursing their young. Unground or ground 

 they may be fed with much freedom to brood sows that are 

 pregnant, the other portion of the diet consisting largely of 

 field roots or pasture. For swine, during the growing pe- 

 riod, they may be made to furnish the sole grain supplement 

 or a part of it. When swine are grazed on alfalfa or clover 

 pasture, equal parts of peas and corn, both fed unground, 

 will furnish excellent supplemental grain food. Swine may 

 be fattened in the pens or in the fields where they harvest 

 the crop, on peas alone. The peas may be fed dry or 

 soaked. Peas may also be fed during the fattening period 

 along with corn, barley, wheat or rye, so as to form any 

 part of the fattening ration that may be desired. The bar- 

 ley and rye, however, must be ground. The few experi- 

 ments conducted tend to show that peas make more increase 

 than corn, pound for pound, when fed to swine and they 

 make a somewhat superior quality of pork. 



When swine are fattened on peas harvested by them, 

 they may be admitted to the peas, when they have neared 

 the maturing stage. They may glean at will after the first 

 few days and only require a plentiful supply of water in ad- 

 dition. 



In wet climates, peas cannot be profitably gleaned thus, 

 as the swine shell out many of the peas and these will sprout 



