8 FARMERS' BULLETIN 614. 



feed corn when the hogs are gathering the rye, thinking that thereby 

 their growth will be hastened. After the hogs have been on the rye 

 for a few days the corn ration should be gradually lessened until none 

 is fed. If corn is fed, the hogs will simply eat that much less rye. 



Rye possesses other advantages over wheat. Aside from being a 

 more certain crop, rye will do better on poor soil than wheat. In 

 many sections of the corn belt wheat is hardly a profitable crop, and 

 many farmers say they grow it merely in order to get a stand of 

 clover and are inquiring what they must do to get away from raising 

 wheat. Rye, when managed as it is in this system, offers a solution 

 of this problem. It not only takes the place of the wheat crop where 

 the yield of wheat is low and unprofitable, but it offers a better 

 chance of success with the clover crop that is sown in it. Rye grows 

 tall and does not produce so dense a shade as wheat, and it therefore 

 gives the clover a better opportunity to thrive. 



In carrying out this general plan with the rye crop it is the most 

 common practice to pasture it with the hogs for a while during the 

 early spring. This is not only a beneficial thing for the hogs, but 

 their trampling helps to sink the clover seed into the soil and is an 

 important item in securing a stand of clover. Figure 3 shows a good 

 bunch of pigs grazing on rye early in the spring and the splendid 

 pasturage they are getting. 



Another important feature about the practice of hogging down rye 

 which must not be overlooked is its contribution toward the building 

 up of the soil and the maintenance of soil fertility. All the rye straw 

 and practically 80 per cent of the fertilizing value of the grain is 



FIG. 3. Hogs grazing on rye in the spring. 



