122 PLAIN AND TLEASAXT TALK 



lowing, clover, or any change ; but one constant, successive 

 corn, corn, corn. It is supposed that corn may be had for 

 an indefinite j^criod, so far as mere exhaustion of the soil is 

 concerned, if the right course is pursued. Some of the best 

 farmers in this region hog tlicir corn lands. Hogging^ is 

 turning the hogs in upon the ripe corn, and letting them 

 harvest it in their own way. The saving of labor of gath- 

 ering the corn and feeding it out is very great. Some sin- 

 gle farmers fatten from one to five hundred head of hogs; 

 but if this number were fed by hand and the grain gath- 

 ered for them it would require a force which would eat up 

 the profits. When the fatting hogs have eaten off the field 

 (temporary fences divide large fields into inclosures of con- 

 venient size) they are turned into another, and the stock- 

 hogs for another year, are let in to glean and root for the 

 waste and trarajiled corn. In this way nothing is lost. 



This method takes very little off from the land ; for the 

 droppings of the hogs retui-ns a great amount of food for 

 the soil ; and the corn stalks being burned or turned under, 

 the land continues in good heart. Land being hogged will 

 be free from cut-worm,s ; for the continual rooting of the 

 stock-hogs, which continues until the ground freezes, 

 throws up the eggs or insect to be destroyed by the Avinter. 

 This method of cultivation is peculiarly suited to large 

 farms, where extensive tracts of ground are kept under the 

 plow. 



But in the course of eight or ten years, this process ren- 

 ders the soil extremely light. The action of frost upon it, 

 after the hogs have snout-plowed it, leaves it in the spring 

 as light and dry as an ash-heap. The corn will still grow 

 as well, but every high wind will throw it down ; the soil 

 has not tenacity enough to hold up its crop. Clovering 

 has been resorted to by some good farmers as a remedy ; 

 but without pretending to know certainly, we suspect 

 that clover will not fully answer the object. Clover on 

 hard soils, separates the particles and renders the ground 



