2 BULLETIN 488, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Many of the farmers on irrigated projects are financially unable 
at present to secure dairy cows or to get cattle or sheep to feed. 
There are very few, however, who can not get into the hog business 
in a very short time. Less capital and time are required in getting 
into the hog business than in any other live-stock industry. With 
$25 with which to buy small pigs and with very little grain and good 
alfalfa pasture, the farmer can get well started in the hog business in 
two years. Horses and cattle increase annually 60 to 80 per cent, 
sheep a little more than 100 per cent, while hogs should increase 600 
per cent or better. The buildings necessary for the housing of hogs 
are also relatively inexpensive. The hog is a very economical feeder. 
It takes less feed to produce a pound of pork than any other land of 
meat produced on the farm. The hog has the ability quickly to trans- 
form the products of the farm into a readily marketable commodit} 7 . 
In the irrigated sections of the West, where alfalfa is the principal 
crop and where grain crops occupy a secondary position, the farmer 
needs information on the following points: (1) The practicability 
of using alfalfa as hog pasture; (2) the value of different quantities 
of grain when fed to hogs on alfalfa pasture; (3) the comparative 
values of corn and ground barley when fed to hogs on alfalfa pasture ; 
and (1) the practicability of hogging down corn. 
In order to secure information on these points, experiments were 
inaugurated at the Scottsbluff Experiment Farm on the North Platte 
Reclamation Project in 1912 and continued with some modifications 
in 1913, 1914, and 1915. The results of these experiments are re- 
ported in this bulletin. 
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE METHODS FOLLOWED. 
It has been the aim in this bulletin to use average prices and to re- 
port sufficient fundamental data to enable anyone to apply different 
prices to the results. The prices used, except where otherwise stated, 
are as follows: Gains made by hogs, $7 per hundredweight; corn, 
$1.07 per hundredweight (or 60 cents a bushel) : ground barley, $1 
per hundredweight ; alfalfa hay, $8 a ton ; tankage, $61 a ton. The 
data, which usually have been calculated to an acre basis, show the 
results that were obtained from quarter-acre plats of alfalfa pasture, 
which, if cut for hay, would have yielded from 4 to 6 tons per acre ; 
and in the case of corn hogged, from one-third or one-quarter acre 
plats that yield as high as 80 bushels of corn per acre. It must be 
remembered by farmers who attempt to follow these methods of 
crop utilization that the higher the yield of the crop the larger will 
be the returns. 
The term " per cent," when referring to rations, indicates the num- 
ber of pounds fed daily per 100 pounds of live weight. The cost of 
