ALFALFA FOR SWINE. 407 



alfalfa. They are happily wedded together, corn 

 and alfalfa. 



Grain Needed. It is as unwise to feed either corn 

 or alfalfa alone to hogs as it would be to send to a 

 mason bricks alone or mortar alone. He cannot 

 build a wall without bricks and mortar in right pro- 

 portions. So the hog cannot build without corn and 

 alfalfa in right amounts. One can trust him to eat 

 the alfalfa, feeding it freely; there will not be too 

 much consumed. He can not let the hog choose how 

 much corn he will eat because he will eat too much 

 for greatest profit. The corn should be limited, the 

 alfalfa unlimited. Thus come cheapest gains and 

 most profit. 



Amount of Grain. How much grain when on al- 

 falfa? The Nebraska experiment station has reached 



this conclusion: 



A light grain ration is not the most economical for growing 

 pigs, unless under peculiar circumstances, when alfalfa is abun- 

 dant, grain very high in price, and market conditions warrant 

 holding the hogs. It seems probable that two or more pounds of 

 corn daily for each hundred weight of hogs is more profitable 

 than a lighter ration. 



Mature hogs, thin in flesh, may be expected to gain about half 

 a pound per head daily on alfalfa without grain. Mature hogs, 

 fed corn in a dry lot while being fattened, required nearly one- 

 half more grain to produce 100 pounds gain, and gave a daily 

 profit of 3 cents less per hog than similar hogs running on alfalfa 

 pasture. Alfalfa may be fed with profit to growing or fattening 

 hogs in almost any form so long as it does not make up too large 

 a proportion of the ration. When cut (chopped or chaffed) and 

 fed as one-quarter of the ration with ground corn it materially 

 reduced the cost of gains and increased the profits. 



Value of Alfalfa Pasture. Certainly this varies 

 according to the productiveness of the pasture, the 



