Connecticut western news., 1921-08-25
OUR FARMERS CORNER
Hogging Down Corn Saves
 Labor and Promotes Gain


 Thirty or forty years age some shrewd farmers fell into he habit of letting their hogs run in the corn field-in September and October and allowing them to eat ears and stalks until all that remained could be plowed under.
 Some also turned hogs into the rye in the spring and let them range on the tender and succulent stalks until they became too woody to be palatable. This process was termed "hogging down."
 Labor Shortage Changes Methods.
 Then came crusade for "clean farming"--typifed by harvesting and shocking the corn stalks, husk- ing the yellow ears and piling them into the cribs, later to be fed to the same hogs. "Hogging down" was decreed to be shiftless evasion of honest toll. The "hogging down" farmers fell into disfavor and drop ped the practice to a large extent.
 Meantime, the labor market was tightening, and a days work came to be regarded not so much as some thing to be gotten out of the farmer or his sons or hired man, but as a period to be paid for in money that could be used for other purposes. The United States Department of Horticulture and some of the experl- ment stations in corn States have of late years given careful attention to the possibilities of feeding stock on the cafeteria plan. To-day it is in use on hundreds of Corn Belt farms and in many other localities in all parts of the country where corn IS grown.
 Hogging down corn saves labor while causing no more waste ihan when the corn is harvested and hand fed. Properly managed, 1t keeps the hogs in better condition and adds weight more rapidly. 1t distributes manure uniformly. It leaves the ground in fair condition for the next crop, and it fits in with a rotation system admirably adapted to build up a rundown farm.
 A Good Five-Year Rotation.
 A system that is widely used calls for fencing the farm into five parts six if you wish to retain a perma- nent pasture. Corn is planted tn the first section and as soon as the ker- nels have become hard the hogs are turned in. AS they have been on other feed, it will take week or 10 days feeding to get them entirely on a corn diet. In the Corn Belt latitude they may be expected to live entirely in the corn field from about | September 10 until the crop is con- sumed. It is generally found best not to permit the hogs range of the entire field, but to erect temporary | fences. These can easily be built of 25-inch wide wire mesh, fastened to l anchor posts at the ends and tied to cornstalks instead of line posts. If a supplemental crop such as rape, | cow-peas, soy beans, or even pump | kins, has been sowed among the l corn, it will provide protein feed which the corn lacks. Pigs easily | learn to pull down the cornstalks for the ears and waste less than when fed in the yard.
 The following spring the stalks and trash that remain on the surface of the field are cut over with a sharp disk and the ground prepared for a second crop of corn, which is har- vested by hand, while the corn for "hogging down" is planted in the second tract. Rye is sown on this field in the fall, either with a one- horse drill between the rows, or after the corn is harvested. The rye may be used to get a stand of clover and timothy, the timothy being sown with the rye and the clover the next ! spring,
 Rye Pasture for Hogs in Spring.
 The rye is, used for hog pasture from early spring until the stalks become too hard. It will be found valuable pasture for brood sows with young pigs. After the pigs cease to consume the rye they are taken out and not returned until after the grain becomes ripe, when they are allowed to consume the entire crop and graze on the young clover until time to turn them into the corn in September.
 The clover and timothy come on the next year and are used for hog pasture and the best parts kept for hay for other stock. The fifth year the timothy and clover crop is cut for hay and the sod turned under late in the fall to prepare the ground for the next years "hogging down" crop of corn.
 Make Early Preparation