Choosing a Forage Crop 167 



separately. Also, a more uniform supply of succulence 

 may be provided by selecting for the combination crops 

 which make most of their growth in successive periods 

 of the summer. For these reasons, various mixtures 

 of the above crops are commonly planted and success- 

 fully used for forage purposes. 



In the latitude of the northern corn-belt and farther 

 north, the Canadian field pea is a standard forage crop 

 for pigs. It is a rapid-growing legume, occupying the 

 same class as the alfalfa and the clovers in its ability to 

 furnish protein. Five or six weeks after planting it is 

 ready to use. It is a decided cool-weather crop and 

 does best when planted as early in the spring as the 

 ground can be worked, and should not be confused with 

 the cowpea, which is extensively grown in the South. It 

 is particularly sensitive to heat and wilts early in a dry 

 hot summer. It should always be grown with oats, or 

 some such crop, which will support the vines ; otherwise 

 considerable loss will result from tramping and mildew. 

 In the North the pigs are sometimes not turned in until 

 the pods are well filled, although the more common prac- 

 tice is to use it chiefly as a green crop by pasturing it 

 after the growth is about 10 inches high. 



Forage mixtures for fall pigs. 



In the summer of 1910, the Iowa Station ^ fed four lots 

 of fall pigs on different forage combinations. The forages 

 tested were made up of a mixture of oats and rape in 

 combination with red clover, hairy vetch, or Canadian 

 field peas in the first three lots, while in the fourth, a 

 mixture of oats and clover was alternately grazed with 

 rape. 



» BuU. 136. 



