248 FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



prove very helpful. For cattle that are being fattened, cow- 

 peas and corn in almost any proportions will answer as the 

 concentrate fed, but when corn forms 50 per cent of the 

 grain ration, more rapid increase may usually be looked for 

 than if it should form a less proportion of the same. 



Sheep, doubtless, may be fattened on this grain alone, 

 just as they may be fattened on the Canada field pea alone. 

 The peas may also be fed thus to breeding ewes. Never- 

 theless, for the latter use, the addition of oats will improve 

 the ration materially. But for fattening sheep, corn and 

 cowpeas, during the later stages of fattening, are superior 

 to cowpeas and oats. These three fed together in equal 

 proportions by weight, should furnish an excellent food for 

 fattening sheep. 



To swine, cowpeas are more commonly fed than to 

 other kinds of live stock. At the Alabama experiment sta- 

 tion, located at Auburn, it was found that cowpeas alone 

 called for 481 pounds to make 100 pounds of increase, corn 

 alone, 487 pounds, and equal parts of each, 433 pounds. 

 The peas and corn may be fed unground. Rye or barley 

 could be substituted for corn, but not quite so satisfactorily. 

 The peas ground and soaked and fed with skim milk, a lim- 

 ited proportion of corn meal being in the ration, make 

 quick growth. Cowpeas and sweet potatoes also feed well 

 together, especially when fattening swine. 



To horses, although cowpeas are not usually fed 

 because of relative cost, they may be so fed. As in 

 the case of soy beans, they go well with corn. When fed as 

 meal, pea meal and ground oats in equal proportions go well 

 together. The oats lighten up the meal in the sense that 

 they render it more porous. 



Vetches. The leading varieties of vetches grown in 

 the United States are known as common winter or spring 

 vetches, also the sand vetch, which, properly speaking, is a 

 winter vetch. The distinction between winter and spring- 

 vetches is not very sharply defined. The highest adaptation 



