338 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
and of course his carcass is made out of grain ; 
but the pig designed to be made a bog of is fed 
but sparingly. His mother lives more than half 
on clover. They will scour the stubble fields 
and eat every grain, which a full-fed pig or sow 
will not do. In the fall, he will live on mast as 
long as it lasts in the wood pasture. He will 
scour the cornfields after the corn is gathered, 
and pick up all the stray grains the horses have 
shelled out, or that may pass through the cattle. 
Through the winter he must be fed some corn, 
but even then he will eat the refuse corn ; clean 
up the scrapings of the fattening hogs' pen, etc. 
Next spring, on the 1st of May, he may go on 
clover pasture, and will live on it till October 
1st, and get half fat. Then his fattening should 
commence. I am undecided as to the most profit- 
able system, and pursue a medium course. My 
early spring pigs I keep well fed from the time 
they are born, and fatten them the following 
winter. My summer and fall pigs I keep over, 
and of them I make scavengers, (not fall pigs, 
however, the first winter, as half Of them would 
die. I fatten my old sows, and summer and fall 
pigs to come in from the 15th of December to 
January 1st, and spring pigs to come in about 
March 1st to the 15th." — -In other words, as 
we understand our correspondent, the early 
spring pigs are not used as scavengers, but are 
well fed during their whole lives, and are killed 
when about a year old. The summer pigs are 
used as scavengers during the following winter, 
are fed on clover the next summer, and on mast 
in the fall, and are then shut up and fed on corn 
for about three months, and killed when 17 to 
19 months old. The/aS pigs are fed grain the 
first winter, and afterwards treated like the 
summer pigs, and are killed at say 15 months 
old. It is a point worth considering, whether a 
farmer situated like our correspondent, could 
not afford to keep enough sows to act as scav- 
engers; and whether it would not be better to 
keep the fattening pigs growing and fattening as " 
rapidly as possible. . It is not necessary to feed 
them exclusively ou grain. They should have 
all the clover they can eat, and after they 
have got their stomachs full of this, should be 
allowed all the corn they can convert into flesh 
and fat. We should be pleased to hear from 
our Western readers on these points. 
Harvesting Com in Tennessee and 
elsewhere. 
There are but two good ways that we know 
of to secure the crop. One is lo top it and save 
the tops for fodder, the other, to cut up at the 
ground and cure the entire plant for fodder, ex- 
cept the ears, which are to be removed when 
dry enough not to heat and mould in the 
bin. "Lowery" writes from Tennessee as fol- 
lows : " We have a very poor S3 r stem of har- 
vesting corn here ; viz., pulling the ears from 
the stalk when they are ripe, and hauling them 
to the crib with the busks on. We do not like to 
pull fodder, from the impression that it injures, 
the corn. We generally follow corn with wheat, 
and the stalks and fodder are not only wasted, 
but they render the putting in well of the wheat 
crop impossible, by clogging the plow and get- 
ting in the way generally. I notice that North- 
ern farmers almost invariably cut up the stalk 
with the ear, and after husking the corn in the 
field, haul the stalks away for fodder. This re- 
quires more labor than our way, but I should 
think it well worth the trouble. — 1. Can the 
corn-stalks be profitably cut early enough to 
save good fodder ? — 2. Will the corn cut thus 
early mature and harden as well as if the stalk 
had been left in the ground until the ear were 
fully ripe ?" 
When corn is topped, the operation should 
not take place before the kernel is glazed ; that 
is, covered with a smooth, hard skin, resisting 
the pressure of the nail. Then the tops of the 
stalks may be cut off just above the ears, and 
stooked in small shocks to dry for fodder, while 
the sun and air rapidly ripen up the ears. This 
practice is common nowadays where the kind 
of corn planted has large, coarse stalks, which 
lose the leaves usually below the ears, and the 
buts of which are refused by cattle. The corn 
is harvested by driving through with wagons or 
carts, and either husking the ears, on the stalks, 
thus leaving the husks,or, preferably, picking the 
ears in the husk and hauling them in for husk- 
ing. Husks are worth fully the price of the best 
hay for feed, hence it is not worth while to sell 
at that rate. The field, thus treated, is left cov- 
ered with stalks 2 to 4 feet long, which should 
be plowed out late in the autumn, gathered, 
and composted with manure upon the field. 
This practice seems to be much less in favor 
now than formerly, though we like it well for 
large corn. ■ 
When the corn is cut up at the ground, about 
15 hills are usually placed in one shock. It is 
best to cut close, so as to leave short stubs only. 
The tops of the shocks should be securely bound 
by two bands, and the buts must stand so as to 
brace well against the prevailing, high winds. 
This is done a little later than corn may be 
safely topped — -when it is more firmly glazed, 
and fewer green ears are to be found. Experi- 
ments have been carefully made and show that 
no perceptible loss of grain occurs if the stalks 
are cut up after the kernels are well glazed. 
The gain to the fodder is immense. Both fod- 
der and grain will stand the severest seasonable 
freezing the night after being cut up and stook- 
ed, but previous to that, a slight frost will do 
the fodder serious injury. Topped corn is more 
liable to be injured by hard freezing than that 
in the shock. When cut up and stooked, the 
corn is left until the ears are fully ripe, when it 
is husked in the field, the husks left upon the 
stalks, and these bound in convenient sized 
bundles and stooked, to remain until fully cured 
before housing or stackiug. 
In case the land is to be put in wheat or rye 
at once — a poor plan, by the way, though much 
followed — the best way is to stook the corn on 
every 15th row, bringing seven hills from each 
side to the row, these hills all being on one cross 
row. First one hill from each side is set against 
the middle one which is left standing; then 
three from the right brought in one armful, then 
three from the left; then the remaining three on 
the right and the three on the left, which make 
the 15. When the whole field is cut up in this 
way, if the hills stand 4 feet apart, it will be di- 
vided into convenient lands 56 feet wide, with 
4-foot spaces between them on which stand the 
shocks of corn. By this method the field may 
then be plowed and sowed at once. 
Thirty Cows on Twenty Acres. 
A subscriber writes : " I have twenty acres 
of land that has been in grass ten to, twelve 
years ; cuts from 2 to 3 tons of hay to the acre ; 
has been top-dressed with from 300 to 400 one- 
horse loads of manure a year; is in good heart 
and clean ; could raise from 50 to 75 bushels of 
corn if it was not for the white grub-worm 
which usually takes it in July. The land is 
dark loam, on gravelly subsoil, and does not 
need draining. How shall I manage to keep 
30 cows, or their equivalent in other stock, ou 
these 20 acres?" 
Of course, this amount of stock cannot be im- 
mediately supported on so limited an area. It 
will take some years to bring it into sufficiently 
good condition. There are two ways in which 
it may be done : the best, if the question of cap- 
ital is not an objection, would be to put the 30 
head upon it, and buy food for them until their 
manure has made the land rich "enough to pro- 
duce all that they require. Assuming that this 
cannot be done, our advice is t» procure as 
much stock as the land in its present condition 
will well support; to make provision for the 
perfect preservation of all manure produced, and 
to bring the land, little by little, to the best con- 
dition of which it is capable. 
The course of treatment may be as follows, 
it being assumed that the land will now carry 
10 cows. Two and a half acres should be 
plowed up early in September, and sowed with 
rye at the rate of 3 bushels per acre. This will 
need no manure. Five acres more should be 
plowed this fall, and very early in the spring 
should be sown with 6 bushels of oats and 
with from 15 to 25 lbs. of clover seed per acre. 
This will need no manure. Two and a half 
acres should receive during the winter a top- 
dressing of at least 100 one-horse loads of ma- 
nure, and should be plowed up early in the 
spring, and planted, one-half acre at a time, 
at intervals of 10 days, commencing at about 
the middle of Maj', with Southern white corn, 
put in in drills 3 feet apart, at the rate of about 
50 kernels to the running foot of row. The 
horse-hoe or cultivator should be run through 
these rows, not only often enough to keep 
them clean, but often enough to keep the land 
thoroughly light. Hand-hoeing will not be 
necessary. The rest of the manure, no matter 
how much of it there is, ma}' be applied after 
plowing to two and a half acres of land for 
roots. This land should be plowed as early as 
possible in the spring, immediately rolled flat, 
and covered with manure. It is better that it 
should then remain untouched until there has 
been at least one heavy rain to wash into the 
soil the already soluble parts of the manure. 
From this time on until the middle of June, it 
should be rolled and harrowed, and rolled and 
harrowed repeatedly, so as to make it as fine as 
possible. At this time (June 15th) two acres of 
this tract may be planted with ruta-baga turnips, 
in rows 27 inches apart ; the plants being event- 
ually thinned to intervals of 12 inches. The 
remaining half-acre may be kept in clean culti- 
vation until the first wet spell after the first of 
July, and then receive a transplanting of mangel 
wurzel from a seed-bed in the garden. 
Next spring the first green tiring available 
will be the rye; a cutting from this may be 
commenced when it is not more than a foot 
high. When it has been once gone over, it will 
probably be ready to commence again. If not, 
a few clays' feed may be taken from the grass. 
After the second cutting of the rye, it may be 
necessary to depend again for a little while, on 
the grass field. The final growth of rye will 
make straw for bedding. 
The oats may be commenced on when they 
are a foot high, and they will be the sole reli- 
ance until what remains is in the milk, when 
the whole should be cut and cured, and stowed 
away for winter fodder. By this time, proba- 
bly, the first cutting of corn will be two feet 
high, and it will be safe to begin feeding from 
it. (that cut very young will sprout again, and 
