The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-02-26
HOGS ARE VALUABLE TO
 THE ALABAMA FARMER,

Held With me. My tune IS now III great demand.
 HOGS ARE VALUABLE TO
 THE ALABAMA FARMER.
 Farmers in Alabama are beginning to realize that hogs are valuable property. The prices of live hogs and meat are un- usually high just now, and as result more attention is being paid to breeding hogs for market. Lecturers on agricul- tural subjects have been endeavoring for many years to impress upon farmers the necessity to diversity their crops and de- vote some of the energy expended on cot ton to raising corn and hogs. Those who have prohted by this advice have seen the wisdom of such a step. Hogs and hominy spell prosperity, and he who is plentifully supplied with either Is not go- ing to starve.
 In raising hogs it is advisable to be very economical in the matter of feed. It Is not a good plan to feed too much corn in the gulf states, and therefore experi- ments have been made at the Alabama experiment station at Auburn which show that Spanish peanuts are available in the months of August and December; ehufas. November to March; cowpeas, July 10 November; sweep potatoes, August to November sorghum, July to November; vetch and oats. March. April and May; dwarf Essex rape, spring sown, May and June; dwarf Essex rape, fall sown, De- cember, January. February, March, and part of April.
 Among the special hog crops. special at tention is directed to dwarf Essex rape, because 1t Is but little known, and is very nutritious. This plant is destined to solve the problem of the present scarcity of corn for feeding purposes For the successful growth of rape the land must be rich and as highly fertilized as for turnips. The preparation, sowing and cul- tiyation of rape is similar to that of tur- nips with the exception that rape is not thinned out. Sow to 5 pounds of seed per acre in narrow drills between Sep tember 20 and October 20. The seed are very cheap, costing but 10 to 12 cents per pound, and are for sale by all seedsmen. Rape can also be sown in March, thus getting hog pasturage in May and June.
 Growth of Young Pigs.
 On farms where dairying is an import ant industry and where there Is an abun- dance of skim milk for SOW and litter 1t is not unusual for the brood SOW to nurse her pigs without losing weight When there is no skim milk the SOW general ly looses in weight, no matter how boun-
  may be- During the nursing period a SOW and her litter may be confined in bare lot and fed mixture of equal weights of ground cowpeas and coarse grade of rice, meal or chaff
 At the end of five weeks the SOW may be removed and the pigs, if they have reached the age of ten weeks may be continued on the same kind of feed for three weeks longer. Corn meal may also be fed to SOW and pigs when they are being grazed on vetch pasture. A pound of growth was made with less meal after weaning, and the unsatisfactory growth may have been due to insufficient shade.
 Dwarf Essex rape has been tried and found very valuable as food for shoats. Pigs kept up on this feed have made very satisfactory progress and have proved the wisdom of planting this crop as feed. For winter pasturage dwarf Essex rape may be sown in drills on sandy upland in October and be ready for pasturage by January. When shoats are fed rape they can get along on half ration of corn meal.
 Grazing Sorghum.
 Satisfactory experiments have been made with sorghum in raising young pigs. A litter of seven shoats were grazed on sorghum from June 24 to September 2, 1899, receiving daily about IF pounds per shoat of equal weights of eowpeas and corn meal During this period the pigs made rapid progress in growth and de- monstrated that this crop can be used on the farm to good purpose Where labor is cheap and abundant or where a corn harvester is possible 1t Is good plan to cut the sorghum and carry 1t to the young pigs. rather than to graze it. When shoats averaging about so pounds receive only one and one-half pounds of grain per day per head and are required to make growth chiefly on sorghum the rate of gain is slow, being a little more than half pound a day To get best results 1t Is advisable to drill and cul- tivate the sorghum to be used as feed.
 Spanish peanuts have been tried as a pasturage for pigs at the agricultural ex- pertinent stations and found very satis- factory. Results go to show that this plant is of great value in pork raising.