82 



FIELD CROPS 



field as soon as the corn is ripe and allowing them to gather 

 the crop. This practice may seem very slovenly and waste- 

 ful, but careful experiments have demonstrated that pork 

 may be produced economically in this way; that is, that an 



acre of corn will 

 produce fully as 

 much and usually 

 a little more pork 

 if the hogs are al- 

 lowed to gather it 

 themselves than if 

 it is husked and 

 fed to them in the 

 yard. If hogs are 

 not turned into 

 too large fields, 

 the waste is not 

 great ; in fact, they 

 will usually gather 

 the corn as clean 

 as a man. The 

 better results 

 which are some- 

 times obtained 

 from this method 

 are due, perhaps, 

 to the fact that 

 hogs are better 

 contented when 

 allowed to run at 

 will in the corn- 

 field than when 

 confined, and also because the corn does not become dry 

 and hard and is, therefore, a little easier for the hogs to 

 masticate than after it has ]:)een husked for some time. 



igure 31. — Jiiipi! in corn, a good combination where 

 the crop is to be "noggecl off." 



