PASTURING AND SOILING 1 85 



most convenient piece of information in managing the 

 crops. P"our-year rotation requires four fields ; a three- 

 year rotation three fields; a two-year rotation two fields." 

 The suggestions made by Professor Hays, while spec- 

 ially adapted to the more northern latitude so far as the 

 illustrations of rotatrons go, may be studied witn profit 

 and turned to account by a hog-raiser in any part of 

 the world, adapting, of course, the changes in crops to 

 his individual situation. The man who will do this intel- 

 ligently will gradually find, as Professor Hays has inti- 

 mated, a wider knowledge of the uses of crops and in 

 addition a better success. 



ROOTING AND RINGING 



Nothing is more natural than for -swine to root, but if 

 the owner keeps his pastures and meadows with an even, 

 unscarred surface while ranged by hogs, it must be large- 

 ly by the help of rings in the hogs' noses. There is no 

 quicker way to destroy the even and compact sward of 

 a permanent pasture than to give the brood sows and fat- 

 tening hogs the run of such a field with their noses free 

 when the land is soft from continued rains. If the whole 

 field is not turned they will soon work the softest parts 

 into holes and a broken and uneven surface that can 

 hardly be leveled again except by cultivation. Without 

 doubt there is too much ringing done by some farmers, 

 and this especially of the early spring pigs when they go 

 out to pasture. Before turning out, some farmers think 

 they must ring every pig with a nose large enough to 

 hold a ring. Much of this is unnecessary, if the hogs 

 are healthy and the fields in the condition they should be. 



