30 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
THE FARM. 
‘Lucerne and Pig's. 
No community with high-class swine 
prominent in its husbandry (says F. D. 
Coburn in ‘Swine in America’). is 
poor. No community with large areas of 
alfalfa (lucerne) can afford to neglect swine 
husbandry. for its people possess the 
material for economical pork production 
equalled by no others. As a pastime or 
soiling crop for sows and young pigs alfalfa 
proves a wonderfully helpful ration for 
milk-making in the sow and for growth in 
the pigs. Experiments have shown that 
pigs make better growth when the dam is - 
fed with considerable alfalfa than those 
from sows fed with the best of commercial 
rations but with no alfalfa. Of two sets 
of pigs, one fed with clover, rape and 
soaked corn. and the other with access to 
alfalfa in lieu of clover and rape, those 
having alfalfa seemed to grow the more 
rapidly. For brood sows it is a most 
valuable food, either as hay, a soiling 
crop, or as pasture, The litters of such 
sows are generally large and vigorous, and 
the dams have a strong flow of nutritious 
milk. Alfalfa meal in slop may be used 
with profit where the hay is not to be 
obtained. Itis also claimed that sows 
fed on alfalfa during pregnancy will not 
devour their young, its mineral elements 
seeming to satisfy the appetite of the 
sow, while contributing to the fetal 
development of the pigs, - 
On a farm of former Governor 
Hoard, in Jefferson County, Wisconsin, all 
the brood sows have for several years been 
wintered on alfalfa hay of the season’s 
third cutting, and there drink (skim milk 
from the dairy), without any grain until 
the last two weeks of gestation. Mr. Hoard 
says the object is to give the sows a food 
that will keep them in a non-feverish state 
and furnish protein sufficient to build the 
bodies of the forthcoming pigs. A. Finney 
County Kansas farmer reports having 
pastured 30 pigs on one acre of alfalfa 
from May Ist to September ist, when 
they weighed 100 pounds each and were 
in fine condition for fattening. Another 
Kansas farmer reports keeping 109 pigs 
from about the middle of April tc Sep- 
tember on five acres of alfalfa pasture. A 
little grain during the last two months 
would have gained him many pounds of 
pork, Many alfalfa raising pig-growers 
insist that their pigs can be maintained 
from May to Uctober on alfalfa for one- 
half what it would cost for almost any 
other feed. 
The Utah station found that young 
shotes gained one-third pound a day on 
alfalfa pasture without grain. 
station found also that the gain was not 
so great in older hogs. A Wisconsin 
’ dairyman reported that he kept nine sows 
all winter and spring on alfalfa hay and 
skim milk, without any grain, and raised 
from them 75 pigs, all healthy and 
vigorous. The Colorado station considers 
that a ration of three-fourths corn 
(mealies) and one-fourth alfalfa hay is the 
best for fattening hogs for market, but 
for young hogs not ready for fattoning 
the proportions should be reversed. The 
station does not recommend grinding 
alfalfa hay for hogs, probably on the 
theory that the hog’s time is not worth 
much at best, and he can do his own 
grinding. ae 
We post ‘Tho Australian Gardener’ 
direct for 3s. Gd. per annum. . 
“required scmething to 
But the ~~ 
October 1, 1909 
Seed Drills. 
There are men living who can remem- 
ber when the first corn drill was started 
in their own district, and when it was as 
much a wonder as the agricultural motor 
now is, Of course, they had been in use 
for some years in some districts; in fact, it 
is recorded that Joseph Locatilli, of 
Corinthia, introduced a crude machine in 
1662, but nothing was made until 1783 
when Cooke patented his drill, the 
forerunner of the modern drill, which was 
worth adopting. Salmon introduced the 
Bedfordshire drill in 1800, and Smyth 
the Suffolk drill about the same time, and 
it was these that placed drilling on a 
»practical footing. One of these drills 
compared with a modern one, was clumsy 
and poorly constructed, but marked 
sufficient advance for the disciples of 
Jethro Tull to welcome them warmly, 
This old worla had wagged its hundreds 
of thousands of years since man had 
deposit seed 
quickly and accurately, and had to wait 
until our grandfathers’ time to obtain 
it. A vast change has over 
agricultural machinery since then; nearly 
every operation of the farm can now be 
done by machinery ;.drills in themselves 
have been improved, but even now drills 
lack one essential feature—a simple and 
effective steerage. 
come 
By far the best is that which Salmon 
introduced more than a century ago, but 
it is associated with a drill of heavy 
draught and one requiring some skill to 
ensure regular depth of seeding. There 
is also the fore-carriage steerage, which a 
highly skilled can with 
steadiness on a smooth seed bed, but the 
meanderings of most work done by it 
show thut it is far from meeting ordinary 
requirements. : 
man steer 
— A Chance for the Inventor. — 
When one looks at a modern drill one 
wonders why the mechanical advantages 
given to the operator of other implements 
and machines are not provided on the 
drill. It may be because many of the 
modifications which have been introduced 
have been made by American and 
colonial makers, who have to provide a 
