Part 3

Corn valued at 50 cents per bushel, meat meal at $2.50 per hundredweight.

Hogs valued at $6 per hundredweight.

During the first 84 days of the test, practically two-thirds of the time, a limited ration of corn was given, while during the last 57 days the pigs received a full feed.

The pigs pasturing on sweet clover received meat meal only during the last 57 days of the experiment.

An experiment reported by the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station shows that a mixture of rape and sweet clover makes an exceptionally fine pasture for hogs. In this experiment the mixture of rape and sweet clover produced more pasturage than alfalfa and was preferred to alfalfa by the hogs. It was seeded at the rate of 6 pounds of Dwarf Essex rape and 10 pounds of sweet clover to the acre.

Sheep relish sweet clover and make rapid gains when pastured on it. Care must be taken to see that pastures are not overstocked with sheep, as they are likely to eat the plants so close to the ground as to kill them. This is especially true the first year, before the plants have formed crown buds. Yellow biennial sweet clover probably would not suffer from this cause as much as the white species, because the plants make a more prostrate growth and are not likely to be eaten so closely to the ground.

Horses and mules do well on sweet-clover pastures. On account of the high protein content sweet clover provides excellent pasturage for young stock. No cases of slobbering have been noted with horses.

TAINTING MILK AND BUTTER.

Milk may be tainted occasionally when cows are pasturing on sweet clover. However, the large majority of farmers who pasture sweet clover on an extensive scale report very little or no trouble. The flavor imparted to milk at times is not disliked by all people, as some state that it is agreeable and does not harm the market value of dairy products in the least. This trouble is experienced for the most part in the early spring. The tainting of milk may be avoided by taking the cows off the pasture two hours before milking and keeping them off until after milking the following morning.

BLOATING.

Unlike the true clovers and alfalfa, sweet clover seldom causes bloat; in fact, with the exception of the summer of 1915, only a few authentic cases of bloat have thus far been recorded in sections where large acreages are pastured with cattle and sheep. A number of cases of bloat wore reported in Iowa during the abnormally wet season of 1915. No satisfactory explanation for this comparative freedom from bloating has been offered. It is held by some that the coumarin in the plants prevents bloating, but this has not been established experimentally.

TREATMENT FOR BLOAT.

Cattle.--If the case of bloat is not extreme, it may be sufficient to drive the animals at a walk for a quarter or half an hour. In urgent cases the gas must be allowed to escape without delay, and this is best accomplished by the use of the trocar. In selecting the place for using the trocar, the highest point of the distended flank equally distant from the last rib and the point of the hip must be chosen. Here an incision about three-fourths of an inch long should be made with a knife through the skin, and then the sharp point of the trocar, being directed downward, inward, and slightly forward, is thrust into the paunch. The sheath of the trocar should be left in the paunch as long as any gas continues to issue from it. In the absence of a trocar an incision may be made with a small-bladed knife and a quill used to permit the gas to escape. Care must be taken to see that the quill does not work down out of sight into the incision.

Another remedy consists in tying a large bit, the diameter of a pitchfork handle, in the mouth, so that a piece of rubber tubing may be passed through the mouth to the first stomach to allow the gas to escape.

When the animal is not distressed and the swelling of the flank is not great, or when the most distressing condition has been removed by the use of the trocar, it is best to administer internal medicine. Two ounces of aromatic spirits of ammonia should be given every half hour in a quart of cold water, or half an ounce of chlorid of lime may be dissolved in a pint of tepid water and the dose repeated every half hour until the bloating has subsided.

See "Diseases of Cattle," a special report of the Bureau of Animal Industry.

For acute bloating the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station recommends 1 quart of a 1-1/2 per cent solution of formalin, followed by placing a wooden block in the animal's mouth and by gentle exercise if the animal can be gotten up.

Sheep.--Gas may be removed quickly from bloated sheep by using a small trocar. The seat of the operation is on the most prominent portion of the left flank.

SWEET-CLOVER HAY.

When sweet-clover hay is cut at the right time and cured properly it is eaten readily by all classes of live stock. As the hay is rich in protein, growing stock make gains on it comparable to the gains of those fed on alfalfa. The quantity and quality of the milk produced when the hay is fed to cows are approximately the same as when other legumes are used. Hay which is cut the first year is fine stemmed and leafy and resembles alfalfa in general appearance. Unless it is cut at the proper time the second year, it will be stemmy and unpalatable. Feeding experiments show that it contains practically as much digestible protein as alfalfa and more than red clover, but the hay is not as palatable as red clover or alfalfa when the plants are permitted to become coarse and woody. When sweet clover is seeded in the spring without a nurse crop in the northern and western sections of the United States, a cutting of hay may be obtained the same autumn. When it is seeded with a nurse crop in these regions, the rainfall during the late summer and early fall will largely determine whether the plants will make sufficient growth to be cut for hay. On fertile, well-limed soils in the East, in the eastern North-Central States, in Iowa, and in eastern Kansas a cutting of hay is commonly obtained after grain harvest when the rainfall is normal or above normal. In many sections of the country two, and at times three, cuttings of hay may be obtained the second year (fig. 3).

In the South two, and sometimes three, cuttings may be obtained the first year if the seeding is done without a nurse crop. When the seed is sown in the spring with oats, two cuttings may be secured after oat harvest. Three cuttings may be obtained the second year, although it is the common practice to cut the first crop for hay and the second crop for seed.

YIELDS OF SWEET-CLOVER HAY.

The total yields of sweet clover per acre for the season are usually less than those of alfalfa except in the semiarid unirrigated portions of the country. Sweet clover ordinarily yields more to the acre than any of the true clovers.

When the seed is sown in the spring in the North without a nurse crop, yields of 1 to 3 tons of hay of good quality may be expected the following autumn, The Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station obtained 2,700 pounds of hay per acre in the fall from spring seeding, while the United States Department of Agriculture obtained 3,000 pounds of hay per acre in August from May seeding in Maryland. Yields of 1 to 2 tons, and occasionally 3 tons, have been obtained in Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, the Dakotas, and other States. In Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas yields of 1 to 1-1/2 tons are often obtained after grain harvest when weather conditions are favorable.

The first crop the second season yields 1-1/2 to 3 tons of hay to the acre in the northern and western sections of the United States. The second crop of the second season will yield from three-fourths to 1-1/2 tons to the acre, although this crop usually is cut for seed.

When sweet clover is seeded in the South without a nurse crop on fairly fertile soil that is not acid, three cuttings of hay, averaging at least a ton to the cutting, may be secured the year of seeding. When the seed is sown in the early spring on winter grain, two cuttings, yielding at least 1 ton to the cutting, may be obtained. The first crop the second season yields on an average 1-1/2 to 3 tons of hay to the acre. In 1903 the Alabama Canebrake Station obtained 2-1/2 tons of hay after oat harvest and a total yield of 3 tons per acre from the same field in 1904.

TIME TO CUT SWEET CLOVER FOR HAY.

The first season's growth of sweet clover does not usually get coarse and woody and therefore may be cut when it shows its maximum growth in the fall, In regions where more than one crop may be obtained the first season, the first crop should be cut when the plants have made about a 30-inch growth.