346 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



APPLES FOR HOGS. 



FARMERS are afraid of sour apples ; if stock have only 

 sour fruit they are injured ; but let both sweet and sour 

 grow in the orchard, and experience has determined that 

 they will, of themselves, eat the due proportion of each. 

 Cattle and hogs are as fond of variety in fruit as men are. 

 In raising potatoes, pumpkins, apples, etc., for animals, it is 

 frequently supposed that the larger and ranker the growth 

 the better ; that, at any rate, cattle fare as well on coarse 

 grained vegetables as on others. But a rank, coarse, watery 

 vegetable is no better for an ox than for a man. The 

 nutritious principle is the same to man or beast. A fine- 

 fleshed, highly nutritious apple or potato is as much better 

 for stock as it is for man. If a variety is not fit for men, it 

 is not worth while to cultivate it at all. Cattle show them 

 selves to be of this opinion when left to range ; they avoid 

 coarse, rough herbage, and pick the sweetest and highest 

 flavored. Let the best sorts of apples be planted for stock. 

 If one has a seedling orchard which it would be worth while 

 to graft over for human use, let not its poor, miserable fruit 

 be fed to hogs; let it be grafted over even if one means to 

 use it for stock. 



PULLING OFF POTATO FLOWERS. The man who makes his 

 potato-ground feed flowers, prevents it feeding his children. 

 Every ounce of matter consumed by the flowers is so much 

 taken from the consumption of the family. 



To RESTORE an exhausted, or rather tired field, it should 

 be sown in grass, and stock fed upon it during the winter 

 months. Hogs fattened upon tired land enrich it very 

 much. 



