16 BULLETIN 488, U. S, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
When a charge of $15 per acre is made for the alfalfa pasture, the 
total cost per 100 pounds of gain was as follows : No-grain lot, $2.33 ; 
1 per cent corn lot, $3.29 ; 2 per cent corn lot, $3.22 ; 2 per cent barley 
lot, $3.14; and the 3 per cent corn lot, $3.48. The no-grain lot made 
gains for $1.15 per hundredweight less than the 3 per cent corn lot 
did. It might appear from this that to pasture hogs on alfalfa 
without grain is the best practice, but this is not generally true, 
because of the much smaller returns of pork per acre. 
Perhaps the most impressive thing shown in Table V is the amount 
paid for hay and its very rapid increase with the increase in the grain 
rations. The 2-year average yield of alfalfa hay from the check 
plats was 5.52 tons per acre. On this basis and assuming that the 
care of the hogs is equal to the cost of harvesting the hay, the no- 
grain lot paid an equivalent of $8.16; the 1 per cent grain lot paid 
$12.71 ; the 2 per cent grain lots, an average of $22.67, and the 3 per 
cent grain lot, $30.48 a ton for alfalfa. 
It seems certain that it will pay the farmer to feed hogs on alfalfa 
pasture at least 2 pounds of corn daily per 100 pounds of live weight. 
By so doing he will not only get a higher return from his alfalfa, 
but he may expect also to make a profit on the corn fed. According 
to these results, it requires less capital for the same net return where 
grain is fed than where no grain is fed. When a 3 per cent corn 
ration is fed with alfalfa pasture, 1 acre will produce as much pork 
as 6.5 acres of alfalfa without grain, or a saving of 5.5 acres of land. 
Again, when fed a 3 per cent corn ration with alfalfa pasture, 52 
pigs will make as. much pork as 156 pigs on alfalfa pasture alone. 
ALFALFA PASTURE FOR SOWS AND LITTERS. 
The following is a discussion of the results obtained by pasturing 
sows and their litters on alfalfa pasture. The first experiment began 
in the spring of 1914, as soon as the alfalfa was large enough to 
pasture, and continued 60 days. There were two sows and their 
pigs in each lot. During the first month and a half the quarter-acre 
plat furnished plenty of pasture, but after that time the pigs were 
so large that the pasture could not carry them all. When the pigs 
were large enough to wean, one or both of the sows were removed to 
prevent overpasturing. 
The sows and pigs were fed daily approximately 2 pounds of corn 
for each 100 pounds of the weight of both sows and pigs. At first 
the grain was fed to the sows only, but later, when the pigs began to 
eat, they were fed separately. A small opening was made in the 
dividing fence, so that the pigs could go from one half of the pasture 
to the other. Both sows and pigs were fed twice daily, morning and 
evening. There are two ways of looking at the results of these 
