ALFALFA FOR SWINE 155 



On a farm of Governor Hoard, in Wisconsin, all the 

 brood sows have for several years been wintered on alfalfa 

 hay of the third cutting, and their drink, without any 

 grain until the last two weeks of gestation. Mr. Hoard 

 says the object was to give the sows a food that should 

 keep them in a non-feverish state and furnish protein 

 sufficient to build the bodies of the forthcoming pigs. 

 (Their ''drink" was the skim milk from the dairy.) 



"It was a matter of experiment at first, our only guide 

 being what knowledge and reason we could exergise from 

 what we knew, or thought we knew, of the philosophy of 

 gestation. The experiment proved to be a success from 

 the first. The sows went through their work in fine con- 

 dition, giving milk abundantly. The pigs came with splen- 

 did vitality, thus reducing our losses from early death 

 fully 30 per cent over what they had previously been. 

 The hay is fed dry and is thrown into the pen on the feed- 

 ing floor without any cutting or chaffing whatever. We 

 have sometimes thought we would try the experiment of 

 cutting it into half-inch lengths and moistening it. Pos- 

 sibly it would take less hay in this way. The sows keep 

 in good flesh, fully as much so as we like." 



A Finney county, Kansas, farmer reports having pas- 

 tured 30 pigs on one acre of alfalfa from May ist to 

 September ist, when they weighed 100 pounds each and 

 were in fine condition for fattening. Another Kansas 

 farmer reports keeping 100 pigs from about the middle 

 of April to September on five acres of alfalfa pasture. A 

 little grain during the last two months would have gained 

 him many pounds of pork. Many alfalfa raising pig- 



