SWINE. 173 



&te naturally filthy if left to themselves, yet the cleaner they 

 are kept, the better they will grow and fatten. 



To those who would raise hogs without that tillage which 

 may be necessary to raise a suitable quantity of grain for that 

 purpose, it may be proper to remark, that some farmers, both in 

 GreatBritain and America^have practiced keeping them through 

 the "'inter on boiled or steamed clover; hay. In that case the 

 clover should be cut a little sooner than usual, and should be 

 well cured, and have about a peck of salt to each ton, when 

 laid down in the mow. For boiling in this case, as well ^s for 

 boiling roots, and for other purposes, a wooden vessel full of 

 holes at the bottom, is placed over the boiler which holds the 

 water and which is heated underneath ; being set in a brick 

 stove, or furnice for the purpose. The steam from the boiler runs 

 through the holes in the bottom of the vessel which holds the 

 articles to be boiled or steamed, and after passing through 

 them, is let off at the top ; not faster however than is necessary, 

 being partly confined with a lid. If the hay or other article? 

 are to be boiled in water, the steam is conducted by a tube into 

 the bottom of a vessel holding the water, into which articles are. 

 to be put. 



^The steam boiler is a necessary article in rearing swine, and 

 for other purposes which every farmer should possess,if consis- 

 tent with his condition. 



In some parts of our country, great account is made of boiling 

 potatoes, ana cariots, and other roots, as winter food for swinej 

 andin the more southern parts of the United States^ where it 

 is less difficult to preserve roots from the frost, the same 

 measure would no doubt be equally profitable and practicable. 

 But our common farmers, in the more northern cli- 

 mate, will ? probably, in their present condition, think it expe- 

 dient to rely more on hard food, such as corn, peas, oats, &c., 

 because they are attended with much less expense in preserving 

 and feeding; these however, will prove much more efficacious? 

 tvhen ground and boiled, or steamed. 



It is observed by the author of the Complete Grazier, that 

 when many hogs are put up together to fatten, they will fall 

 a^ay at first, if ever bo well fed ; which he attributes to the 

 noise and confusion produced among them by this new 

 state of keeping ; he observes too, that in such ca^s it is not un- 

 frequent for one of the family to become so much the object of 

 hatred to the rest, as eventually to be killed by them; and from 

 all this he infers that it is much better to have them in a number 



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