658 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



would have pleny of corn for four to six weeks. During the last two 

 Weeks they should have a daily feed brought to them to allow them some 

 time to rest. If this field could be divided by portable fence so they 

 would eat off an acre or so at a time they would do better. The changes 

 to fresh feed would save the trouble of hauling in additional feed after 

 corn would become scarce. It is well to let the brood sows or shoats 

 glean after the fattening hogs have eaten off the bulk of the crop. 



Why hogging off corn is not practiced so much as formrely in the 

 older states we will not take space to say. In our own case it is because 

 our portable fence wore out and lumber is too high and of too poor 

 quality to pay us to make more, and a wire fence is hard to handle 

 amoung heavy corn. In these days when the labor question is paramount 

 hogging off corn appeals to the man with fields suited to it. L. N. B. 



FARM BACON CUEING. 



DBOVEBS' JOXJEWAi. 



With the increasings consumption of bacon in this country there is 

 little question but what more hogs will continue to be turned toward this 

 end. Already the demand in the cities of the country is considerable, 

 and while the farmer as a class has not as yet made an effort to produce 

 his ow>n bacon there is little reason why he should not cure his side 

 meat just as readily as he already prepares his annual supply of hams 

 and shoulders. 



On account of the packers' expensive and economical means of hand- 

 ling live stock, turning the various meat products to the best advantage, 

 there is no opportunity for the farmer to do anything in the bacon line 

 other than what he needs for his family use. For many years the farmer 

 has supplied his own table, and even though it were clearly evident that 

 he could sell his hogs on foot and replace them with the packer's meat 

 at less cost, it is not altogether probably that many would follow the 

 practice simply because the farmer naturally prefers his own product, 

 even though he were fully aware that the other were equally good. This 

 is simply a matter of homely custom that is as marked as it is doubtless 

 impossible to eradicate. 



FABMEBS NEED MOBB VABIETT. 



It is with no attempt to flatter that we are frequently told that the 

 farmer's cellar and storeroom is better supplied with the necessities of 

 life than those of any other sort of people. This is true because the far- 

 mer produces his own, and out of the yearly supply takes enough unto him- 

 self to furnish his family to last until another harvest. 



While the farmer's cellar and storehouse is proverbial for its supply, it 

 frequently falls short when the matter of variety is concerned. Some 



