PASTURE AND SOILING CROPS 201 



pounds of grain for 100 pounds of gain. Hogs fed a half 

 ration of grain, gained .98 pound per hog per day, and re- 

 quired 291 pounds of grain for 100 pounds of gain. Thus, 

 it will be seen that the hogs fed a full ration on pasture made 

 more rapid gains, but consumed much more grain for every 

 100 pounds of gain. 



The Ontario Agricultural College fed two lots of pigs five 

 weeks on clover and ten weeks on rape. One lot received a 

 full meal ration and the other a two-thirds meal ration. As 

 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 as 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- 



