SWEET CLOVER: UTILIZATION. 7 



The Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station conducted an inter- 

 esting pasturing experiment with spring pigs in 1910. In this ex- 

 periment, pigs weighing approximately 38 pounds each were pastured 

 for a period of 141 days on two plats of red clover, a plat of Dwarf 

 Essex rape, and a plat of yellow biennial sweet clover. The pigs 

 pasturing on each plat received a ration of ear corn. The ration 

 given to the pigs on one plat of red clover and on that of rape was 

 supplemented with meat meal to the extent of one-tenth of the ear- 

 corn ration. The feed given to the pigs pasturing on sweet clover 

 was supplemented with meat meal at the same rate during only the 

 last 57 days of the test. The red clover was seeded in 1908 and re- 

 seeded in 1909, so that the plat contained a very good stand of plants 

 at least one year old. The sweet clover was seeded in the spring of 



FIG. 2. Hogs pasturing on sweet clover. 



1910. while the rape was sown on April 4, 1910, in 24-inch rows. 

 The pigs were turned on the forage plats on June 22. 



The results of this experiment, as presented in Table I, show that 

 sweet clover carried more pigs to the acre and produced cheaper gains 

 and a greater net profit per acre than either red clover or rape. To 

 judge from the date of seeding of the plants tested, it was to be ex- 

 pected that the pigs pasturing on the sweet clover would not gain as 

 rapidly at first as those pasturing on the other forage plants, as the 

 growth of the sweet clover at this time was undoubtedly much less 

 than that of the other crops. This assumption is borne out by the 

 results given for the first 84 days of the test. During this period 

 the pigs on the rape made a net gain of $11.55 per acre and those on 

 the red clover $6.86 per acre more than those on the sweet clover. In 

 these computations corn was valued at 50 cents per bushel and hogs 

 at $6 per hundredweight. During the latter part of the experiment 



