232 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



they arrive at mature age, giving them proper care and atten- 

 tion, and requiring of them no more work than they can per- 

 form without injury and pay their keeping, rearing at the same 

 time a valuable colt, which proves a source of great pleasure 

 and profit to the owner, besides adding one more noble animal 

 to his farm stock. When this course obtains among all farmers 

 who make a practice of raising this class of stock, we shall not 

 be under the necessity of going abroad for our best horses, but 

 shall be able to furnish other portions of the country with as 

 good animals as any part of the world can produce. 



Justin Ely, Chairman. 



SWINE 



ESSEX. 



Statement of George Coffin. 



I herewith subrhit the following statement of my breeding 

 sow, which I now enter for premium, accompanied by her pigs. 

 The sow is a cross of the SuflFolk, Mackay and Byfield. She 

 was two years old the 15th of last April. 



She has had forty-three pigs ; seven when she was seven 

 months old ; ten when she was twelve months old ; nine when 

 seventeen months old. These last were on exhibition at Law- 

 rence, last year. On the 25th of last March she had eight pigs, 

 which I sold, when six weeks old, for f 30.50. The pigs now 

 with the sow are five weeks old, nine in number. 



In the summer, when she does not suckle, I feed her princi- 

 pally on grass and weeds ; in the winter on apples and pump- 

 kins. When suckling, I give her shorts and Indian meal, about 

 equal parts, stirred up with water. 



Havekhill, September 26, 1855. 



