284 PRINCIPLES OF FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



Barley is sometimes sown in the spring and used for pas- 

 ture in the North. 



Wheat is seldom sown for pasture. However, when it 

 becomes so badly lodged that it is impossible to harvest it 

 for the grain, it makes good pasture for hogs. '' Hogging 

 down " wheat, however, is quite expensive unless it cannot 

 be harvested in any other way. 



Corn is seldom pastured green, although it is used in many 

 systems of soiling. 



It is a common custom in the newer parts of the corn-belt 

 to husk the corn in the field, leaving the stalks stand. These 



Fig. 79. — Hogging down corn. (Iowa Experiment Station.) 



are pastured by turning in cattle, horses, and sheep. Stalk- 

 fields pastured in this way will furnish but little more than a 

 maintenance ration and should be supplemented by other 

 feeds if much gro^vth or fattening is expected. " Corn-stalk 

 disease," a mysterious and usually fatal disease, sometimes 

 attacks animals which are turned into stalk-fields during the 

 fall and early winter. No one seems to know the cause, 

 means of prevention, or cure for '' corn-stalk disease." 

 Less frequently it attacks horses and cattle which are fed 

 on cured corn stover or corn fodder. It seems to be more 



