26 The Colorado Experiment Station. 
lars’ worth of pork is made from feed that would otherwise be 
wasted. 
PASTURE EOR HOGS. 
Grain is high priced in Colorado, and at least half the weight 
of a 200-pound hog should be made from forage. Raising a hog 
without pasture in Colorado usually is a losing business. At the 
same time, a growing pig should have some grain every day, no 
matter how good the pasture. Sometimes it is profitable to keep 
dry, mature sows on pasture alone, but it may be taken as a gen¬ 
eral rule that every hog should have some grain every day of his 
life. 
The feeder should keep a close daily watch on his growing 
pigs and keep them steadily gaining in weight, using the least 
amount of grain and the largest amount of pasture that can be 
done and secure a regular, good growth. 
No matter what the size of the pasture, it is best fi> divide 
it into at least two lots and change from one to the other as the 
hogs eat the feed down. Hogs do not thrive best on soiled pas¬ 
ture, and do better when changed often enough to 1 keep: the feed 
clean. 
Rings may be put in the hog’s noses to prevent them from 
rooting, but if the pasture is sufficiently large and some grain is 
fed daily, the hogs will do little damage from rooting and are 
better off for it. 
Alfalfa makes the best hog pasture. It is best not to pasture 
it until the second or third years of growth, and in Colorado al¬ 
falfa will usually furnish good feed from April 20th to Christmas, 
and sometimes later. 
When hogs are fed some grain daily, they will make from 
500 to 1,000 pounds of gain during the pasture season from an 
acre of good alfalfa after deducting the gain which the grain will 
make if fed alone. 
An acre of alfalfa pasture is sufficient for from five to twenty 
pigs, depending on their size, the richness of the land, the season, 
and the amount of water available for the growth of the plants. 
It does not pay to pasture too close, and a good plan is to allow 
an acre of alfalfa for each sow and her pigs, and cut for hay what 
they leave. 
Dwarf Essex Rape is next in value to alfalfa for hog pasture. 
It is similar in appearance to cabbage that does not head. It is a 
rapid grower, starts up again quickly after being pastured down, and 
will withstand severe frosts. It does well under dry land farming if 
seeded so early that it becomes well developed before drought and 
hot winds come. The writer has found it green and thrifty in the 
