1903 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
‘‘HOGGING DOWN CORN." 
This is a familiar term to many old- 
time farmers living in the corn and hog 
belt, hut to the young men of the coun¬ 
try, the practice is almost unknown. 
There are many reasons why the prac¬ 
tice has become almost obsolete, viz., 
bog cholera, cost of fencing, and the 
value attached to the fodder, or stover, 
for this is lost when the corn is hogged. 
Men who formerly followed this plan, 
fattening large numbers of hogs pur¬ 
chased as Stockers, have in the main 
given it up, because cholera caused the 
loss of the hogs and the grain. Some¬ 
times the disease would catch the herd 
when a field was half consumed, caus¬ 
ing a loss of grain lying on the ground, 
and making the gathering of the re¬ 
mainder an unsatisfactory job. This 
was. of course, not so bad as losing the 
whole crop, and the hogs too. But the 
heavy losses in this direction, caused 
many to quit trying to feed in a large 
way. If the hogs were not 'fed in this 
way, and the fodder consumed, other 
stock came into use, that consumed the 
fodder. And so it came about that the 
corn was husked, and fed to the hogs in 
smaller numbers and in lots convenient 
to water. It was always the custom to 
“hog down” corn, adjacent to some 
.stream, or other supply of water. Such 
corn was usually on bottom land, and 
could be corned, year after year, without 
noticeable loss in fertility, which made 
the practice a desirable one. But the 
rush of waters that sometimes came 
was against the practice, as all the rails 
were washed away and lost, and could 
not be replaced again. 
At present there are several reasons 
why the plan deserves serious considera¬ 
tion. At the time it is done, work 
presses as hard on the farm as any 
other time in the year, corn cutting 
and seeding being in order. When hogs 
are fed while this other work is going 
on, the farmer finds that it is difficult 
to keep all his work go’ing on in order, 
and with promptness, unless he keeps 
more help than desirable. But the in¬ 
ability to get all desired help would 
appear to be the most serious drawback, 
the way matters now stand. Under an 
arrangement made on most farms, if 
the hogs are fed husked corn, some of 
the farm work is apt to be neglected. 
If it can be arranged to hog down part 
of the corn crop, turning the hogs on 
as soon as the corn is ripe the farmer 
will reduce the amount of labor to be 
performed at that time to a very agree¬ 
able extent. 
Before being turned on a plot of corn, 
to be hogged down, the hogs should be 
brought up to full feed on new corn. 
This should take 10 days or two weeks, 
according to the condition of the hogs 
when feeding commences. Much care 
should be taken in this feeding up to 
full ration, as an over feed may cause 
much lost time in getting the hogs back 
to feed; often it is more serious than 
this, and many hogs are lost. When 
once they are in the cornfield, they will 
feed first on the ears of stalks that are 
down, soon leaving to break down fresh 
stalks, as they need the corn. Often 
more is broken down than they need, 
and many ears can be seen that are 
partially eaten, but if the season is not 
too wet, it will be all well cleaned up 
at the finish. 
The best way to manage when the 
hogs first go on the corn, is to fence off 
a small part for them to eat, while 
the corn is yet green, which will prevent 
the loss that might occur from turning 
them on too large a field, and having 
too much green corn pulled or broken 
down at once. At the finish of a field, 
they can be given husked corn to make 
out full rations, while they are cleaning 
up the scatterings, or what would be 
better, let them be followed by shotes 
or young stock hogs. If the farmer 
expects to practice this plan, he should 
plant a field early, so that the hogs can 
have it eaten before bad Fall weather 
sets in. If it is desired to seed the land 
to wheat, or other small Winter grain, 
it should be plowed shallow, the stalks 
turned under, and the land worked till 
a good seed bed is made. If rye is 
sown, it can be disked in, regardless of 
stalks covering the ground. Success 
may be had by sowing the grain before 
the hogs are taken off the land, and let 
them tramp it into the soil as they clean 
up the corn. To make this plan a suc¬ 
cess, the weather would have to be fa¬ 
vorable, and the land so moist that a 
grain sprouting wmiild not die from lack 
of covering or moisture. By this sys¬ 
tem of disposing of the corn crop, many 
farmers will find a partial help in solv¬ 
ing the labor question, also an aid in 
keeping up land, two of the most im¬ 
portant questions that confront the 
farmer. john m. jamison. 
Ross Co., 0. 
NATIONAL DELAINE MERINO SHEEP. 
The Delaines are direct descendants 
from the Humphrey importation from 
Spain in 1806. Why they are called De¬ 
laines is from the long white wool they 
produce, which is 2^/^ to four inches and 
sometimes longer. They are a compact 
sheep in all ways, smooth bodies, no 
wrinkles, well wooled on legs, body and 
head. The ewes will clip eight to 12 
pounds and the rams 15 to 25 pounds at 
one year’s growth, with proper care and 
feed. The ewes will weigh at maturity 
100 to 125 pounds and the rams 125 to 
175 pounds. They are good mothers 
and easy keepers, good constitutions; 
sudden changes in the weather do not 
affect them in any way and they herd 
in larger flocks and do better than 
coarse wools. We never wash our sheep 
and this season Delaine wool has sold 
in this section for 22i/4 cents per pound 
unwashed. Our experience has been 
that a fine wool sheep of any breed is 
far ahead of a coarse wool for roughing 
it. My father commenced breeding these 
sheep in 1885. At present I have about 
600 ewes and rams. f. c. mot-kin. 
Friendship, N. Y. 
BUTTER “COMING “ QUICKLY. 
Several weeks since one of your corres¬ 
pondents told his experience in churning 
and stated the fact that he had discovered 
the secret of butter coming quickly but 
failed to give the information. If he can 
be persuaded to divulge his knowledge I 
wish he would do so, for I am having all 
the trouble our cow can give in that tine, 
churning two hours and over every churn¬ 
ing day, which is twice a week. I have 
tried every way I know of, heating to 70 
degrees and cooling down to 64 degrees 
before churning, (soured my butter too 
once doing that and have feared to do so 
again). f. m. b. 
Rushford. N. Y. 
I do not know that I have discovered 
the secret of butter coming quickly. In 
the article to which reference is made, 
I told of the trouble I had in churning 
because of feeding apples to cows. I 
never fed apples before, never had any 
trouble before, and had no trouble after 
I stopped feeding them. I also told that 
we kept the cream down stairs and that 
I brought it up the night before churn¬ 
ing and warmed it to 70 or 72 degrees 
and let it stand until the next day when 
it was churned. At this season of the 
year I usually churn twice a week, but 
have churned only once a week this 
year. The cream is raised in shallow 
pans with two or three quarts in a pan, 
put on rack in pantry, which is in 
northeast corner of house with a win¬ 
dow in north and east sides. Skimming 
is generally done in morning, but occa¬ 
sionally at night. The milk is a little 
sour. The cream is kept in a dairy 
room directly under the pantry. Every 
day when new cream is put in the whole 
is stirred thoroughly. The cream is 
kept in the dairy room until I get ready 
to churn, and after the churn has been 
scalded and rinsed with cold water the 
cream is put in and warmed to 64 or 65 
degrees with warm water. The cream 
is too thick to churn without some thin¬ 
ning. The butter comes in from five to 
671 
eight minutes. I do not think there is 
any rule that will apply to all cases in 
regard to making butter. I think it de¬ 
pends on the cows a good deal. I have 
never had any trouble with sour or 
cheesy butter from our cows. Some¬ 
times when all our butter was taken by 
customers and we have been short I 
have bought milk and taken it as soon 
as it was milked and set it with ours 
and the butter would smell and taste a 
little cheesy. w. e. r. 
New Hampshire. 
SHEEP PASTURE IN MICHIGAN. 
In my opinion clover pasture is far 
ahead of Blue grass in this part of the 
country, southern Michigan, and better 
for the ground as a fertilizer; it is the 
secret of farming here. When on ac¬ 
count of drought and hard Winters we 
do not get catches of clover other crops 
are poor. Clover makes the ground 
mellow and puts lots of fertility into the 
soil. It produces more pasture and 
grows more quickly than Blue grass. 
The plant to help out clover or Blue 
grass is Dwarf Essex rape, which I have 
sown for 15 years. It is the greatest 
forage plant for sheep and hogs, and 
good for cattle. If sown any time from 
April 15 to August 15 it furnishes pas¬ 
ture through the dry season, saving the 
new seeding and old, for pasturing 
through the dry hot weather is very dis¬ 
astrous fo the grass pastures. I was one 
of the first to introduce this plant. It 
has helped me through trying times by 
furnishing succulent food for my flock 
of sheep during July and August. 
CHAS. II. HUTCHISON. 
White Pigeon, Mich. 
Cut Cabbage for Stock.— In regard to 
the surplus cabbage, in prospect this year, 
will say that one year we did well In 
keeping our cabbage until Spring, selling 
for a good price. The next year we went 
into It quite largely and the result was 
that in the Fall we found ourselves with 
about 18,000 heads, and no sale for them, 
as we sold those that we thought would 
not keep through the Winter. The prob¬ 
lem was, what should we do with them? 
Krauting was the first thing thought of, but 
what a job, with the cost of barrels,and the 
job of pounding it down after it was cut. The 
way we got out was to cut them up with 
the root cutter set fine and put them into 
a bin that was made of pine boards, and 
well gripped together. The floor was made 
of two-inch stuff to hold the weight, as the 
cabbage cut up in that way is quite heavy. 
To say that we had a flne lot of kraut is 
putting it mildly. This was fed to all the 
stock, from horses to chickens, for there 
was not salt enough in it to hurt any kind 
of stock. B. M. M. 
Michigan. 
k^UBULA^ 
^(Dpewiv5q>2d!'dto^ 
If we cannot show you wherein our I 
I separators are worth at least fifty per 1 
cent more than other separators, don’t 
buy them. We want you to know that 
you have the best when you buy a Tubu¬ 
lar. You cannot help being convinced if 
you examine a Tubular. You will find it | 
entirely different from other separators. 
Write for free catalogue No. 1S3 
I THE SHARPIES CO., P. M. SHARPIES. 
Chicago, Illinois. Vast Chaster, Pa 
Dairy doLrars 
Big Profit 
in Cows 
la but a question of getting afl the cream 
(butter fat) out of the milk. With the old 
setting system your loss is over » 
80 per cent greater than with a f Ji!:J 
NATIONAL 
Hand Separator 
A valuable machine you can 
test in your own home or dairy 
t O Days Free 
If you like—buy it; if yon 
donk, wetakeit back and pay 
all expense—you have noth¬ 
ing to risk. Our catalogue 
gives full particulars. 
National Dairy Machine Co., Newark, N. J. 
CYPHERS INCUBATOR, 
World’s Standard Hatcher. 
UMd on 26 Got. EIzpanmeDt SUttona In U. S,. 
Canadn, Aoatraliaand New ZeaUnd. <^la 
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$ I O-BO For 
I sS 200 Egg 
INCUBATOR 
Perfect la construction and 
action. Hatches every fertile 
egg. Write for catalog to«day. 
QEO. t1. STAHLi Quineyi III. 
HEY, THERE I JUNK MAN! 
I want to know how much you will give me 
for one of those separators that claim to 1^ “just 
as good” as the 
DE LAVAL CREAM SEPARATORS 
^ I put in one of them last year because the agent 
claimed it was “just as good” as a DE LAVAL 
machine and was $10.- cheaper. I have looked about 
and gotten some separator experience since then and 
I find now that I could have bought a DE LAVAL 
machine of greater actual capacity for less money in 
the first place, while I have lost money every day 
through the imperfect skimming of this machine, 
aside from hard running and trouble of all kinds from 
infernally p<wr construction. 
I am goin^ to have a DE LAVAL machine now 
if 1 have to “ junk ” this old one for scrap-iron. I 
^know it will save its cost the first year of use and 
should be good for twenty years. I find all well- 
informed dairy farmers are using DE LAVAL 
machines and that there are over 400,000 of them. 
A De Laval catalogue may save this experience. 
THE DE LAVAL SEPARATOR CO. 
CHICAGO 
RHILADELPHIA 
SAN FRANCISCO Oeaeta! Offices: 
MONTREAL _ 
TORONTO cortlandt street, 
WINNIPEG • NEW YORK. 
