198 RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS IN SWINE FEEDING 



in the Montana experiments, the hogs fed a full meal ration 

 made more rapid gains than the others, but they consumed 

 421 pounds of meal for 100 pounds of gain, as compared with 

 353 pounds meal for 100 pounds gain in the lot fed the two- 

 thirds ration. 



It seems to be clearly demonstrated that it is a mistake to 

 feed hogs all the meal they will eat when upon pasture, unless 

 it becomes necessary to do so near the end of the feeding period 

 in order to fit them for market. (See also Missouri recom- 

 mendations quoted in this chapter.) 



Methods of Feeding Alfalfa. Bulletin 123 of the 

 Nebraska Experiment Station reports a. series of winter tests 

 with varying proportions of corn and alfalfa. The tests covered 

 three years, and they appear to have been carefully conducted. 

 The rations tested were a.s follows : 



'Corn alone. 



Corn and alfalfa hay in a rack. 

 9 parts corn and 1 part chopped alfalfa. 

 9 parts corn and 1 part alfalfa meal. 

 3 parts corn and 1 part chopped alfalfa. 

 3 parts corn and 1 part alfalfa meal. 

 1 part corn and 1 part chopped alfalfa. 

 1 part corn and 1 part alfalfa meal. 



Summary of Results. (1) The gains made by the rations 

 containing one-half alfalfa were much slower and more ex- 

 pensive than those obtained from any of the other rations. 

 The tests during two winters showed that a fattening ration 

 should contain less than half alfalfa, but a ration of half 

 alfalfa and half corn was found quite satisfactory for wintering 

 brood sows. 



(2) When half the ration consisted of alfalfa, alfalfa meal 

 gave faster gains with less grain than chopped alfalfa, but the 

 difference was not enough to pay for the extra cost of the 

 alfalfa meal. 



