DISPOSAL OF IRRIGATED CROPS THROUGH THE USE OF HOGS. 11 



the corn fed. By this method of calculation it can be shown that lot 

 2 paid' $1.64, lot 3, $2, and lot 4, $1.91 per hundredweight for the 

 grain fed. 



The quantity of grain required with alfalfa pasture to produce 

 a pound of pork varied from 2.36 pounds in lot 2 to 3.02 pounds in 

 lot 5, the quantity increasing with the total quantity of grain fed. 

 The cost per 100 pounds of gain varied from $2.22 in lot 1 to $3.61 in 

 lot 5. The total and daily net return per acre of alfalfa pasture 

 increased with the amount of grain fed. Lot 1, with no grain, paid 

 $47.32 an acre for the alfalfa pasture. This was much more than the 

 hay crop would have sold for in the stack had it been harvested. 

 This partly explains why many farmers are content to carry hogs 

 through the summer on alfalfa pasture with little or no grain. After 

 paying for the grain fed, lot 2 paid $67.93; lot 3, $124.07; lot 4, 

 $117.16 ; and lot 5, $166.25 per acre of alfalfa pasture for the season. 

 The daily net returns per acre of alfalfa increased from 30 cents 

 where no grain was fed to $1.06 where about 3 per cent of corn 

 was fed. 



Five plats of alfalfa in the same field where these experiments were 

 conducted yielded at the rate of 6.56 tons of hay per acre in four cut- 

 tings. On the basis of this yield, if the cost of harvesting the hay 

 crop is equal to the cost of caring for the hogs, lot 1 paid $7.22 a ton 

 for alfalfa hay; lot 2 paid $13.38; lot 3, $19.21; lot 4, $17.86; and lot 

 5, $25.30. The manure left on the land is also of some value and 

 should be considered in favor of the practice of pasturing hogs on 

 alfalfa. 



EXPERIMENTS IN 1915. 



The 1914 pasturing experiments were repeated during the summer 

 of 1915, with the addition of one more lot (3a) fed 2 per cent corn. 

 These pasturing experiments were conducted on the same alfalfa 

 plats that were used in 1914, with the exception of one, lot 3a, which 

 was on third-year alfalfa. The same general plan was followed in 

 1915 as in 1914, as described above. 



The 1915 season was very backward and suffered many disadvan- 

 tages. The hogs were put on pasture on April 26. The first two 

 weeks the hogs did well, but on May 18 a foot of snow fell and the 

 temperature dropped to 29° F. This made it necessary to remove 

 the hogs from the plats for seven days, during which time each lot 

 was kept separately and fed the regular amount of grain. Again, 

 on August 6, a severe hailstorm did a great deal of damage to the 

 alfalfa. The damage done on the pasture plats was not as great as 

 on the plats which were, left for hay. There is little doubt that the 

 hogs obtained more feed from the pastured plats than was harvested 



