SIXTH ANWtJAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 651 



little rascal in the bunch carries an automatic self-winding, selfregulating 

 time piece and he knows as well as any of us when his meal time rolls 

 around. So every pig is always there and ready and never so full but 

 what he has a place to put a fill of sweet slop." When the pigs become 

 about eight or ten weeks old, pasture began to fail; then came for them 

 one of the changes of life. Adjoining their pasture was a ten acre field 

 of corn. Pumpkins had been liberally planted in the corn at planting 

 time. The rich well manured soil made a heavy growth of both. When 

 the time for the last plowing had come the entire field was seeded to rape. 

 The only mistake was that the rape was sown too thickly and it grew 

 almost like grass. Then one morning about the middle of August a hole 

 was made in their pasture fence and the pigs were' allowed the privilege 

 of a ramble into the great beyond, of finding by experience how large 

 a place the world is as far as the far side of the field where they came, 

 plump into another woven wire fence. This field was a great place for 

 rambles, far explorations, for adventures and discoveries. Every morning 

 before going to the field they were fed some slop, not all they could hold^ 

 but some, enough to balance the carbohydrates of the rape and corn and. 

 keep them growing as well as fattening. As they were no longer slopped' 

 at noon they naturally contracted the habit of staying in the corn field 

 all day, and so it happened that almost before they knew it they were^ 

 weaned. v 



To the writer one of the greatest surprises was to see how very little,' 

 corn they had eaten. It was only the stalks that were down or leaning: 

 badly that were touched. They were eaten cleanly — 'ear, blades and all — 

 not a particle was wasted. At night the pigs went back to their sleeping' 

 quarters where more slop and oats were given them. From October a 

 few stalks of corn were broken down for them daily. It was in November 

 when I saw them. Surely the average weight was 150 pounds at least 

 I was particularly impressed with the low cost of the ration fed. Only a 

 limited, in fact a very limited amount of grain had been fed, but what 

 little had been fed was exactly what was needed. The largest possible 

 use had been made of grass and forage. One dollar's worth of feed had 

 done more for this man than two dollars had done for many of his neigh- 

 bors. As I left I saw a team on the mill grinding oats for the pigs. "I 

 never grind oats for a young pig with sharp teeth," the proprietor said, 

 "but when I see the oats coming through them unground then 1 start the 

 mill. I think it is best for a pig a calf or a colt to grind his own oats 

 as long as his teeth stay sharp so he can." 



Many of our agricultural writers aver that rape will be smothered 

 out or shaded too much by the corn to make any growth when sown 

 broadcast in the cornfield at last cultivation, yet the writer has seen rape 

 standing waist high in corn that would make 70 bushels per acre. Rape 

 may perish in a cornfield, but it is not because it is shaded too much 

 by the corn. In southern latitudes the young plants may be stunted by 

 a lack of moisture. To the northern side of the Corn-belt where moisture 

 is not usually lacking the young plants are usually smothered by the 



