Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-08-25
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
BUILDING UP LAND BY HOG
CLING DOWN RYE.
A Valuable Crop for Pigs-Popular Ma
Piles Diseased Plums - Tubercuious
Cows--Salt Tor Bees-shecp shearihgs
and Household Helps.
Rye and Hogs.


We built up our land pretty well a
few years Rgo by hogging down rye
and clover. and at the same time
made, as we calculated, SO per acre
for our crop changed into pork. The
soil was all run down from excessive
drain on it by heavy crops, and
something had to be done to bring it
back to good fertility. At the same
time it was such valuable land, on
which heavy taxes had to be paid,
afford to spend several hundl ed dol
laas in turning under green crops,
and not get dollar from it for "a
couple of seasons. We concluded,
finally. on the advice OF friends, to
give the land over to rye and clover,
and turn the hogs in the field, and
see what we could make in the pork
line.
We planted rye and clover, and
then allowed the hogs to eat about
half of it, taking care not to let them
eat it too close. To prevent this, we
constructed movable fence which
we transferred from place to place so
as to shut the hogs up in certain
portions of the field. and keeping
them from other parts. Rye is a
valuable crop for the pigs, but its
value is greatly enhanced by having
clover or other grass growing with
it. This combination of rye and
clover is unexcelled as a food for
hogs. If the animals have nothing
but rye to eat. they will be apt to
swallow the grain whole, and not get
any nourishment from it, but the
clover helps them to digest the grain
heads without chewing them,
We let the pigs on the field when
the rye began to ripen, and then the
clover was well up in the field, and
all through the summer and late in
the autumn they found sufficient to
make them grow rapidly. The rye
straw left on the field acts as a good
mulch to the clover for the first win
ter, often protecting it from severe
freezing, so that good catch is
easily obtained. All of this straw,
and the clover roots, go to make the
soil rich in the very substances that
most worn out lands demand. In our
case, two successive summers of hog
ging down the land with rye and
clover brought the soil up TO such a
condition of fertility that we could
grow the heaviest crops on the land
again with little trouble. Meanwhile
we sold our hogs, and the whole bus
mess paid us, we thought, at the rate
of s. To so per acre.
The fact is, too little attention is
paid to rye, and especially those who
raise hogs for the market, says tho
American Cultivator. For late fall
and early spring pasturage there is
no crop that can equal it, and gener-
ally rye is safe crop. 1t will in
one season prepare poor. land so that
a good catch of clover can be OBJ
tanned following. and the two grow
| together like twin brothers. After
the rye is cut, If so desired, in the
proper season, the clover will be in
/ such condition as to furnish excel
lent pasture to the farm animals for
the rest of the season. When rye is
| hogged down from two to three good
crops can be grown from one sowing.
and this is really the best plan to
adopt-to hog down. 1t is a heavy
and unpleasant crop. to harvest.