SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 657 



Corn only fed to sows before farrowing will not bring good results, 

 as sows thus fed to sows before farrowing will not but little vitality, and 

 usually the sow thus fed wil be feverish and very apt to eat her pigs at 

 time of farrowing. A. J. L. 



HOGGING DOWN CORN. 



breeders' gazette. 



Answering the inquiry, "Will some one who has had experience tell us 

 how long, approximately, it will take 40 hogs after they have been sea- 

 soned to new corn to hog six acres of corn that will make 50 bushels 

 to the acre, and also state his objections to the method?" I would say 

 that: 



If one has a field of moderate size with water always available the 

 corn can be hogged off to advantage. It saves labor and adds fertility. 

 Hogs get plenty of exercise and are able to consume greater amounts of 

 feed without dulling the appetite or deranging digestion than if ted in 

 a small dry lot. They will also eat the soft cobs and greenish stalks, 

 adding to their variety of food and to the bulk, which promotes good 

 digestion. 



For many years we hogged off part of our corn crop wherever we 

 could with a portable fence cut off a few acres, where the hogs could, 

 get water. We never turned in, however, until the corn was out of milk, 

 but lost no time after that. We prepared the hogs for this by cutting up 

 corn and feeding it on the clover field, beginning to cut even when the 

 corn was in milk. The hogs ate the ears entire and much of the juicy 

 stalks. This feeding comes in well after the clover becomes woody and 

 is not relished so much as the younger clover or green corn. 



It pays well to keep a good supply of salt and ashes where the hogs 

 can have ready access, as they will visit it as often as they will the water. 

 After the hogs have eaten all the corn it pays to go over the field with 

 a sharp disk to cut up the stalks and loosen the surface so the rains will 

 penetrate the soil and not run off, losing the water and carrying off the 

 fine lot of rich manure. The stalks are plowed under. 



This hogging off is an easy way to save the labor of husking and 

 feeding, and spreading the manure. The hogs do the work without cost. 

 There needs to be care, however, not to keep hogs on the ground after a 

 heavy rain. They injure the ground and waste corn at such a time. 

 Fortunately we usually have no excessive rainfalls in late September and 

 October. 



How long six acres of such corn as your inquirer speaks of will last 

 40 hogs depends on the size and age of the hogs. Forty old sows would 

 consume it in haalf the time required by so many spring pigs seven or 

 eight months old. It is probable that if the weather was dry and there 

 was little waste from tramping the com into the mud the 40 spring pigs 



