The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1910-06-14
Pasture

We hive set apart q 40-acre piece
OF land so rods square that we will In |
the future use exclusively as rota-
ton of hog pastures. AS indicated by
the accompanying illustration. the 40
acres is divided into four equal sized
fields with a lane two rods wide be- |
tween each field. leaving each field
exactly 1871 rods wide and 80 rods |
long, writes L. p Martiny. In Home
stead These four fields are inclosed
with a permanent fence. In our case.
raising hogs entirely for breeding pur
poses, we use a woven wire fence
with nine longitudinal bars 36 inches
high. All corner and end posts are Sc
cured in position by digging the post
hole in the ordinary manner to the
depth of four feet. The post Is then
put in position and the hole filed with
wet concrete mixed in the proportion
of one part best Portland cement to
eight or ten parts OF good, clean.
coarse gravel This may seem like
a very small proportion of cement, and
it certainly would be for ordinary con-
crete work. but being in the ground 1t
cannot get away and forms perfect
| ly hard mass, which Is all that Is re-
CURED We reinforce this concrete by
putting in a couple of coils of two to
three strands of old barb wire to hold
the whole mass intact. as 1t has
tendency to crack or split by the great
strain we put on the post in stretch
ing the fencing With the use of this
concrete we use no brace or brace
posts whatever to support the end
posts, thus simplifying the construc-
ton of the fence to a considerable ex
tent. Besides the posts will be pre-
served longer in the concrete than II
placed in the soil.
Each field has six gates at equal dis
tances apart along one side of the
pasture and large post is set in con-
crete In the fence on the other side OF
the field opposite each gate SO thai
a temporary fence may be placed be-
tween one Of the gate posts and the
post on the opposite side of the field.
thus sub-dividing each field as occa-
sion may demand. We aim to divide
our pigs so that there are not more
| ludu ~ " 90 pigs III coCu Ill.,
Our plan of rotation is to have a
piece of new seeding of a mixture of
medium and alsike clover with little
timothy as pasture for the pigs In
the next lot we SOW Canada field peas
which thrive very well In our climate
and soil. On our soil we prefer tc
leave the land fall plowed. AS early
n tho {c -
work we disk the land in good shape
and SOW the peas with a drill. at the
rate of ~ bushels per acre, drilling
them in as deeply as possible ant
finishing with a fine smoothing har
row.
From the tenth to the fifteenth O
July the peas will be full grown ant
time we turn the pigs into the field O
peas to hog them OF. still allowing
them the run Of the clover pasture
This field OF peas with the addition o
a very little or no other feed will las
the pigs very nicely until about tn
middle of September, when the pig
:. Will be in a very thrifty condition
showing great development of bon
and muscle on account of the rich Pre-
tein feed furnished them by the peas
In the next field to the peas W
plant a rather early maturing variet
of corn which will come to perfec
maturity by the middle of Septembe
or first of October. This corn flel
q will be where we had the clover pas
ture the year previous. which will pu
G It In fine condition for the crop @
y corn. We lay the corn by rather early
cultivating it the last time soon afte
the first of July, and sowing about fiv
pounds of rape seed per acre at tn
:" last cultivation The pigs are turne
In the field of corn from September l
to October 1. when they are in jus
the right condition to make very rapi
and cheap gains. The rape in tn
corn will make good growth during
favorable season and will serve as
variety and relish for the hogs ava
a, on into winter In the fourth fielt
which will be where we grew peas tn
year previous, we will SOW barley an
seed down to clover and timothy wit
40 the barley We harvest the barley
the usual manner, thresh and grind /
r The reason we use barley In this feel
Is because 1t is about the safest Gro
to seed which we have. and we ar
very anxious to get a good catch {
" the clover seeding. In this rotatio
We have, first, clover pasture one yea
l...ft corn. then Canada field pea