PASTURE AND GRAIN CROPS FOR HOGS. 15 



Beardless harleij. — If no winter wheat is available to hog off, its 

 place may be filled with beardless barley. In fact this crop may take 

 the place of corn and peas as well, being used from the time it is in 

 the stiff-dough stage, about July 10, until winter rains come. Hogs 

 do exceptionally well on it after the rains have softened the kernels. 



Peas. — To furnish autumn pasture, one-half peck of wheat or a 

 peck of oats is frequently sown with peas that are to be hogged off. 

 In working upon the mature crop the hogs cause considerable of the 

 oats or wheat to shatter out. Much of this is covered by the tramp- 

 ing of the hogs. When the first fall rains come it germinates and fur- 

 nishes good pasture. 



Corn. — Corn is hogged down to good advantage in much of the 

 territory west of the Cascade Mountains for about six weeks — that is, 

 from the time the kernels are pretty well glazed and dented until 

 late in the fall. After the rainy season is well begun, the hogs get 

 many of the ears down on the wet ground. This causes the corn to 

 mold and spoil. For this reason it is not best to undertake to hog off 

 too late in the season. In the Willamette Valley corn reaches the 

 hogging-off stage about September 15. In the Rogue River Valley 

 it is earlier and in northwestern Washington much later than in the 

 Willamette Valley. 



SUCCULENT WINTER FEEDS. 



Table III. — Succulent winter feeds for tvestern Oregon and western Washington. 



Crops. 



When planted. 



When used. 



Kale 



Planted in March or April; trans- 

 planted in June. 

 May 25 



October 1 to April 1. 



Squash 



November 1 to January 16. 





AprU 1 to May 15 



November 1 to April 1. 





Early spring 



Do. 









Thousand-headed Icale. — Thousand-headed kale is an excellent 

 succulent winter feed for hogs. The mild winters of western Oregon 

 and western Washington permit kale to stand in the field all winter. 

 It is cut and fed as needed. Unless fed in a rack or on a clean floor, 

 pigs waste a great deal of the kale by tramping it in the mud. Full 

 directions for growing kale will be found in Farmers' Bulletin 271 of 

 this department. 



Squashes. — In order to raise squashes successfully the land is manured 

 heavily during the fall or winter, plowed about March 1, allowed to 

 lie for five or six weeks, and then disked, harrowed, and clod mashed 

 until m good condition. From May 1 to 15 it is replowed. Just 

 before the seed is planted, about May 25, the soil is again cultivated. 



The squashes are gathered about November 1, stored in a dark 

 place in the barn, and covered with straw to keep them from freezing. 

 They keep better if gathered before the surface of the squashes has been 

 frozen. They are fed from approximately November 1 to January 15. 



