8 
BULLETIN 488, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
These hogs were put on alfalfa pasture, with a small ration of 
grain, for about a week after they were received at the farm. They 
were then weighed, ear tagged, and divided into lots which were as 
uniform as possible. The mean of three consecutive days' weighing 
was taken as the initial weight. Each hog was weighed separately 
and individual weights were kept of each throughout the experiment. 
Lot 1 received no grain: lot 2 received a 1 per cent ration of corn; 
lot 3 received 2 per cent corn : lot 4. 2 per cent barley ; and lot 5, 3 
per cent corn. 
Shortly after the beginning of the first period an outbreak of 
cholera occurred. Treatment was applied as soon as possible, but 
P4940WI 
Fig. 2. — The alfalfa plats used in 1914 and 1915 in the hog-pasturing experiments at 
the Scottsbluff Experiment Farm, showing the portable houses and the method of 
dividing the pastures. 
the disease did enough damage to affect the results of the test. 
Nevertheless, fair returns were secured, the net returns per acre of 
alfalfa pasture from May 3 to July 2 ranging from $18.76, where 
no supplement was fed, to $54.19, where the pasture was supple- 
mented with a 3 per cent ration of corn. 
The plan was to use spring-farrowed pigs during the second period 
of the experiment, but. as a great many of the spring pigs had died 
from cholera, it was necessary to select the best of the smaller hogs 
that had been used during the first period. Xo hogs, however, were 
used from the two lots which had had no grain and 1 per cent corn, 
