FORAGE CROPS FOR HOGS IN KANSAS AND OKLAHOMA. 33 
4 
pound hogs. Upland of fair average fertility will support from 8 
to 10 head of the same kind of hogs. There are fields that have sup- 
ported 25 head per acre all through the season for a number of years 
aud are still in good condition, and there are other fields that will 
not furnish pasture for more than 5 head per acre; but these are 
extremes. When a field is used only for pasture it is better to divide 
it into several lots and move the hogs from one to the other as oc- 
casion requires. 
The length of the season during which this pasture is furnished 
also varies. Alfalfa is ready for pasture on the average from the 
middle of April in southern Oklahoma to the middle of May in 
northern Kansas. In many cases it will do to pasture earlier, but it 
is not best, as the young alfalfa has not the start it should have for 
heavy pasturing, nor has it the strength in the plant. When not 
pastured too early it will furnish feed at the rate mentioned during 
nearly the whole season until October in the North and November in 
the South. In some years the pasture season will continue a month 
later in the autumn, depending on the rainfall and the lateness of 
cool weather. In some seasons, if the summer is unusually dry and 
hot, the pasture will become short; but usually pasture for the num- 
ber of hogs previously specified can be depended on for about seven 
months of the year in the southern limit of the territory named and 
for about five months in the northern limit. This rule will apply to 
other sections of the country in the same latitude as Oklahoma and 
Kansas. 
While many farmers pasture alfalfa fields to their full capacity, 
in some sections, especially in northern Kansas, it is customary to run 
about half as many hogs as the alfalfa fields will support. This 
practice permits the cutting of the usual number of crops of hay, 
though the yield of hay is, a course, reduced. 
Alfalfa not only Pane a great amount of pasture, but it is of 
a character that goes to make ipome and muscle. It belongs to the 
leguminous family of plants, as do the clovers, the cowpea, the field 
pea, the soy bean, and the vetches, and while it is furnishing this 
valuable food it is at the same time adding fertility to the land. 
Alfalfa pasture or alfalfa hay and corn are very nearly a balanced 
ration for animals, and while it is better to have a grain ration fed 
with it to hogs as well as other animals, yet a healthier, thriftier hog 
ean be raised on alfalfa alone than on corn alone. Many instances 
are found where hogs have been raised on alfalfa alone. One Okla- 
homa farmer marketed in December, 1905, 61 head of spring pigs 
eight months old that averaged 171 pounds. These hogs had run 
from the time they were little pigs with their mothers on 15 acres of 
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