57 



twenty moiitlis. At that age breeding-sows begin to bear and continue 

 until the seventh year. The sows are fed on barley-meal until the pigs 

 are about a month old, after which they are fed once a day only, three 

 to four jiounds of corn, being driven to pasture forenoon and afternoon. 

 At six or eight weeks the pigs are weaned. The males having been 

 castrated, they are driven as early as April, when the weather is favor-' 

 able, to pasture, or rather with the better breeders, to fields or lucerne 

 or clover provided for them. They, however, continue to receive some 

 grain until the stubble-fields are open to them. In autumn they are 

 driven to the forests, and in many localities they return the last of De- 

 cember half fattened on acorns. They are then sold to persons who 

 make a business of fattening. Swine are rated as "half-fat" at 300 

 pounds; when they reach 400 to 460, they are reckoned as "prime 

 ware," and are sold as pork, 40 pounds being deducted from live weight. 



The annual export of swine from Hungary, as far back as 1840, did 

 not exceed 350,000 head, much the largest part being transit trade. 

 From 1860 to 1865 it averaged 422,000 head per annum, more than 

 200,000 of which were bred in Hungary. Success gave increased im- 

 I)etus to the business. The chief feeding-place, a veritable pig-town, 

 arose in the neighborliood of Buda Pesth, at Steinbruch. In 1872, at 

 the latter place, the import amounted to 549,620 head; the export, 

 520,130. The value of the imported pigs was $14,660,285; value of 

 maize consumed, $2,200,000; total, $16,860,285; value of exports in 

 fattened pigs, $16,635,285. 



Trichina. — Mr. Charles G. Boemer, of Vervay, Switzerland County, 

 Indiana, reports to this Department the result of microscopic examin- 

 ations recently made by him to determine whether pork in that locality 

 was affected with this parasite. Out of 187 slaughtered hogs examined, 

 11 were found to be afi'ected. Three of these contained encysted trichina 

 spiralis, and eight, various other forms. The parts examined were the 

 ham, shoulder, and tenderloin. A magnifying power of from 50 to 100 

 diameters most distinctly revealed the parasite when present ; a higher 

 power cut off the light too much. He also found in the muscles of a 

 rat he examined, trichina identical with those in the flesh of the 

 swine. 



Agriculture in Utah. — A correspondent in Kane County, Utah, 

 reports as follows: Last season fruit of almost all kinds in that local- 

 ity yielded 25 to 50 per cent, above the average ; sweet-potatoes yielded 

 in some places about 4 tons to the acre ; wheat, corn, cotton, sugar-cane, 

 and all other crops were full average. Farmers in almost all parts of 

 the Territory are forming co-operative companies, and those who 

 worked on that system last year did well. 



Consumption of paper by different nations. — Signor Eugenio 

 Morpurgo estimates that the Russians consume paper at the rate of 1 

 pound per capita per annum ; the Spaniards, IJ pounds; the Italians, 3^; 

 the French, 7; the Germans, 8 ; the English, 11^; the Americans, 171. 

 He states that there are in the whole world 3,960 paper-making estab- 

 lishments, the aggregate annual product of which is estimated at 

 1,809,000,000 pounds of paper. One-half is used for printing, one-sixth, 

 for writing, and the remainder for packing. 



Exhaustive wheat-culture. — Our correspondent in Stearns 

 County, Minnesota, presents the following trenchant statistical facts to 

 illustrate the impolicy of the exclusive devotion to wheat-culture which 

 has so seriously injured the farming interest of the Northwest. For six 



