FEEDING SWINE 141 



pounds to the acre, after which time it is permanent if 

 allowed to seed. It furnishes grazing from July to 

 October of a very superior sort, containing on the aver- 

 age above 3 per cent of digestible protein, about 20 per 

 cent of digestible carbohydrates and a little less than a 

 pound of digestible fat per 100 pounds of grass. The 

 nutritive ratio shows the feed to be carbonaceous in 

 nature, having a nutritive ratio of something over 1 : 7, 

 which suggests its use with such nitrogenous feeds as 

 soy beans, cottonseed meal, alfalfa hay, linseed meal, 

 wheat by-products, and tankage and meat meal. This 

 would be a most important feed if it were wider in its 

 adaptability. Fortunately, where it leaves off, Bermuda 

 is the grazing "grass that supersedes it, and, as we have 

 already seen, this is a valuable swine-grazing grass. 



Velvet bean pasture. For the extreme South this 

 summer legume is a most valuable grazing crop. Its 

 usefulness is limited farther north by the time required 

 for the maturing of the plant, six months generally being 

 required. The early speckled variety matures much 

 sooner than the Chinese. By means of its beans it is 

 valuable to supply a good protein foraging crop through 

 winter. The yields on the better fields have amounted to 

 as much as 1^2 tons of beans in the pod per acre. 



The plant is an annual and is generally seeded in April 

 at the rate of six or eight quarts of seed per acre to 

 supply fall and winter grazing from September to March. 

 It is a very rank grower. As a general rule it cannot be 

 satisfactorily grown north of 33 latitude. It is a heavy 

 yielder, making from 40 to 60 bushels of seed, and is 

 generally grown with corn, for with it a fairly well- 

 balanced ration is made, and the two crops are ready for 



