Choosing a Forage Crop 165 



With those lots fed for approximately the same length 

 of time, the mixture of oats, clover, and rape gave the 

 best results. In this lot the gains were fastest, the 

 amount of grain fed for each 100 pounds of gain made 

 was least, and the amount of pork credited to one acre 

 of forage greatest. Although the amount of grain re- 

 quired to produce 100 pounds of gain was greater in the 

 early rape lot than in the lot on oats, peas, and rape, 

 the gains were faster. As measured by the amount of 

 pork or concentrates credited to each acre of forage, the 

 latter crop was more profitable. The blue-grass and 

 timothy pasture gave returns very much less favorable 

 than the other forages, due, no doubt, to the fact that 

 this crop did not supply as much protein to balance the 

 straight corn fed during most of the experiment. The 

 value of a late planting of rape is well shown by these re- 

 sults. The more rapid daily gains in this lot as compared 

 with the early rape lot are probably to be explained by 

 the larger size of the pigs and also by the fact that straight 

 corn was fed for a shorter proportion of the time. 



In the forage experiments at the Iowa Station in 1911, 

 rape alone proved slightly inferior to a mixture of oats, Ca- 

 nadian field peas, and rape. (See Table XLIV, page 169.) 



Winter rape. 



That rape is deserving of consideration as a winter 

 forage crop by the southern hog raiser was shown by 

 experiments conducted at the Alabama Experiment 

 Station by Gray, Summers, and Shook.^ Ten pounds 

 of rape seed were sown in drills 18 inches apart September 

 19. The soil was very poor and sandy. Pigs of average 

 quality, weighing 45 pounds, were turned in November 9, 

 > BuU. 168. 



