The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1895-08-07
Glover Hay for Swine,


A writer in the Rural World enthu-
siasticaly presses the importance of
clover hay for swine. He says: "The
first time ever heard of feeding clover
hav to hogs was many years ago while
attending school. Near the town lived
wealthy and stingy old bachelor.
Among his many possessions were al
ways to be found a number Of hogs, all
of which he wintered upon clover hay
exclusively. He scattered it upon the
ground much in the same manner as
the farmer of to-day who does not be-
lieve in book farmin' feeds his sheep.
While all of his hogs became very poor
before the spring, never knew of his
losing single animal. About the first
thing l did when commenced farm
ing was to purchase feed cutter and a
steam cooker, and one year, the second,
l believe, a long dry spell left me rather
short of feed. Then l thought of the
old man and his hay-fed hogs; but, not
wishing for duplicate of his miserable
skeletons, 1 determined to try and
economic with my grain and yet keep
my swine in good thrifty condition.
l ran my clover through the cutter and
cut it into half-inch lengths. 1 next
filed my steamer about half full of the
cut clover and covered it with water,
adding more and more from time to
time until the clover was thoroughly
steamed, until soft and tender"
In concluding his article, he makes
the statement that the bulk of the food
consumed was cheap clover hay, but a
small amount of mixed grain with it
being used. They were wintered
cheaply and were thrifty, and his ex.
perience through several years con-
firmed the value of clover hay. We
have fed clover hay to pigs in test of
the claim, made by the late E. w.
Stewart, that pigs required bulk in their
food for the purpose of distention of
the stomach and for the further pur-
pose of acting as a mechanical divisor
of meal 30 that the juices of the stomach
might penetrate more freely the food
taken in. In experiments with other
foods, evidence has been found sub.
Stimulating something of this claim.
In the trial in mind at this moment,
lucerne hay was fed during the winter
with wheat against lot fed without
the lucerne. The upshot of the trial
was on one side favorable to lucerne,
for 234 pounds of grain were saved by
the use of 361 pounds Of lucerne. There
was some economy in the practice, al
though, if the figures are carefully cast
up, it will be found the 361 pounds of
lucerne contained as much digestibe
matter as the 234 pounds of wheat.
Viewed from the standpoint of nutrition
taken in, it will be seen that nothing
10 loft for ,>hNoioo1 Of 80
lucerne, for the digestible materials fed
in it would account for the difference
in gain. This has not been the case
with other foods, for there has ap-
peared to be something standing to the
credit of mere physical effect.
On the economic side, lucerne seems
to have been successfully fed, for it en-
abled the producer to use homegrown
foods to advantage as a substitute for
purchased grains. 1t, has, however,
one drawback,-the pigs on the lucerne
not gaining as fast as those on the
grain alone. But as the final effect
was as stated, namely, so much hay
equivalent 10 so much grain as a sub
stitute, the only loss was in the case of
the feeders time for few more days
of care. Another advantage to the lu-
cerne is in the fact that hog thus fed
will, through the increased stomach
capacity, or other reasons, consume
more when placed upon grain alone,
and gain faster than when not thus
treated-at least it 80 appears. Most
feeders of hogs are well aware that
they will consume something of the lit
ter or bedding given them. From some
experience in feeding coarse foods, we
would advise the keeping of the softer
varieties of hay or corn fodder, or
little of ensilage where hogs will have
access to it.
One very interesting result was OBJ
served in the trials in question. The
hogs that were in the above trial were
continued through the summer in an
experiment which included the feeding
of green lucerne. 1t appeared at the
close of the summer feeding period that
the green lucerne had been fed at no
better advantage than the dry lucerne.
If this result may be depended upon in
ordinary practice, we are encouraged to
feed hay in winter as we'll as grass in
summer to pigs. Those who have re-
sisted the claim of green food, for
some subtle and underlined reason, ex-
cept that grossly abused phrase "tonic
effect explains it," will note with
some satisfaction the fact mentioned,
namely: The equivalency of dry hay