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California Horticulturist and Live Stock Journal. 



Remedies fob Hen Lice, — As the Summer 

 heats incrfiise hen lice multiply auJ the broods 

 need constant looking after. It is a safeguard 

 to put tobacco in the nests of siting hens. 

 Refuse tobacco or old stems will answer the 

 purpose. If lice are already in the hennery 

 make a strong decoction of tobacco and apply 

 it with a syringe all over the inner surface. 

 Sulphur sprinkled in the nests and about the 

 roosts is also a good remedy. Insects do not 

 like the smell of brimstone. Another remedy 

 much used recently and very easily applied is 

 kerosene oil. Strips of listing from the tai- 

 lor's shop are tacked upon the roosting jioles, 

 and these are saturated with the oil. The hens 

 upon the poles get some of this oil upon their 

 feathers, and wherever it touches it drives off 

 the insects or kills them. Carbolic acid is a 

 cheap destroyer of insect life. It is largely 

 diluted with water and applied to all parts of 

 the house. If, m very old houses, one appli- 

 cation is not sufficient, repeat it. — X. 



A lime wash, made of tobacco juice and 

 lime, is also good to drive away lice from 

 buildings and roosts. 



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More Hogs and Less Wheat. 



"il? Union some hard sense under this head, 

 t^u% and had it been written for California 

 (^Q3 farmers it could not have been worded 

 much better. Read it, and consider well the 

 facts. 



Why don't we raise pork? I cannot tell, 

 unless it be that the goddess Ceres has so fas- 

 cinated and blinded us by her charms that 

 wheat, and wheat only could we sow and reap 

 on our virgin soil. But the goddess sutlers a 

 terrible eclipse this year, and let us quietly 

 break from her leading strings and discuss the 

 pros and cons of raising swine for profit after 

 the example of our thrifty neighbors. 



It must be admitted the price of pork fluc- 

 tuates greatly, but none can doubt it will bear 

 a good price for two or three years. Besides 

 we should at least supply oiu' own rapidly in- 

 creasing wants at all times. It is a burning 

 disgrace to us farmers that we have to import 

 pork, bacon and lard. We belive, on the 

 contrary, that it would be a wise and prudent 

 policy for our own farmers to go into the busi- 

 ness largely, and export this product by mil- 

 lions of dollars annually. The large and in- 

 creasing export to Europe will keep up a fair 

 market, and we can ship pork, bacon and 

 lard much cheaper than wheat. But let us 

 pass to the next question— 



HOW SHALL WE BAISE THEM? 



First, how iioi to Ho it. Don't attempt to 

 hang up high hopes and expectations on the 

 big-boned, long-legged, lean, slab-sided, two- 

 forty racers; or even the common scrubs of 

 slow growth, but ravenous, all-devouring eat- 

 ers. Don't keep only the breeding hogs over 

 Winter. Don't freeze them by cold, wet, 

 nnlittered pens, and don't starve them with 

 wish-washy, homeopathic doses. 



Commence with the best well-bred grade of 

 pigs you cau easily find of any of the early 

 maturing breeds. These are so widely dif- 

 fused there is no excuse for keeping inferior 

 ones. Breed to a thoroughbred male of the 

 most hardy and early maturing blood — we 

 would choose Berkshires, and be sure you are 

 not deceived by men who will sell grades 

 for pure breds. The young pigs should bo 

 drojiped in March or early in April, and give 

 them, without fail, a well-littered, warm pen. 

 Give them the best start in life you can. They 

 will pay you richly for care and good feed. 

 Have a clover lot in early Summer to turn 

 them in. lu August turn them into the corn 

 (grain) field, fencing off a small area by a 

 hurdle fence. After harvesting this lot move 

 the fence round another lot, unless you 



choose to follow up with the store hogs. Keep 

 changing as necessary your hurdle fence, and 

 watch the jiorkers grow fat. You may give 

 the fluishing touch to them in your pens if 

 you keep into December. Kill, cut, barrel, 

 smoke and try out the product yourself, and 

 learn to do it well. Vou then reap the whole 

 harvest, and save the middlemen's profit. 



Two hundred and fifty or seventy-five 

 pounds of the sweetest, nicest quality, turned 

 when eight or nine months old, will swell out 

 the pocket book to a greater rotundity than 

 wheat or beef — and think of the little labor 

 and expense. Try it, farmers. But, remem- 

 ber, the keystone of success is the use of a 

 pure-bred male of one of the improved breeds, 

 and generous care and feeding. 



Impovement IN Bkeedino Swine. — At all 

 our fairs, at all our markets, and upon the 

 premises of all good farmers, we see the most 

 surprising evidence of improvement in our 

 stock of hogs. Pure blood has, within the 

 last twenty or thirty years, done more to im- 

 prove our swine than any other class of do- 

 mestic animals. Several reasons may be 

 assigned for this: In the first place, the 

 breeding of pigs is an easier and more simple 

 matter than the breeding of horses or cattle, 

 or even sheep. We breed here for flesh and 

 fat only; and owing to the extraordinary fe- 

 cundity of the species we may modify the 

 characteristics of a variety in a comparatively 

 short period. In the next place, as hogs 

 make no other return for their keeping than 

 that derived from their carcass when slaugh- 

 tered, the importance of the best form and 

 quality for the production of the most jirofit- 

 able carcass, is more manifest and pressing 

 here than with any other species. It requires 

 very little intelligence to discover that to pro- 

 duce pork, bacon and lard profitably, we must 

 have a variety of pigs that can be brought to 

 their average maximum weight at from ten to 

 fifteen months old — experience has demon- 

 strated that it will not pay to keep them 

 longer. For this purpose we must have a 

 round, straight carcass on short legs. Me- 

 dium sizes are better than very large ones, 

 more economical, and produce better pork, 

 selling usually for the best prices. 



The farmers of America are entitled to great 

 credit for sagacity in resorting to superior 

 blood for the improvement of their swine; and 

 when we reflect how extending and wide- 

 spread has been the benefit, and how self-evi- 

 dent its great value, we wonder that the same 

 judicious practice has not been resorted to in 

 the improvement of other stock. As we have 

 said, the beneficial results are more immedi- 

 ate here, and secured at less expense than 

 where pure blood is resorted to for the im- 

 provement of cattle; but the necessity is not 

 greater in tiie one case than the other, though 

 it is more obvious. 



For twenty-five to fifty dollars we may se- 

 cure the best thoroughbred boar, and if he 

 has work enough to do he will more than pay 

 for himself the first season. For one hund- 

 red and fifty to three hundred dollars a good 

 thoroughbred bull may be had; and he, too, 

 may be made to pay for himself in a single 

 season. While the keeping of inferior cattle 

 does not, to an unobserving farmer, appear so 

 self-evideutly unprofitable as the keeping of 

 scrub pigs, the loss is, nevertheless, grejjter, 

 as the rearing and keeping of cattle involves 

 so much more expense. — Cor. National Live 

 iStock Joiu'ncd. 



Dressing Black Hogs. — If care is taken in 

 scalding black hogs they cau be dressed as 

 white as any white hog. It is a well known 

 principle that all black substances absorb 

 he.it. Hence in dressing black hogs tho 

 water should not bo so hot as in scalding 

 white ones. If this simple rule bo observed, 

 there will bo no dilUculty in dressing black 

 hogs. Instead of this color being an objec- 

 tion, I consider it as an advantage, for tho 

 skin of a black hog will always be found to 

 be smooth and glossy, free from cutaneous 

 eruptions and always clean. 



The Berkshibe Pig. — The old Berkshire 

 hog was held in very high esteem for many 

 years, centuries perhaps. It was regarded as 

 the best pig in England, and was naturally 

 selected as the basis of the wonderful improve- 

 ments which have built up tho reputation of 

 the modem Berkshire on such a basis of in- 

 trinsic good qualities. It is, no doubt, true 

 that much of the improvement is due to the 

 Chinese cross. 



Sidney, a popular English writer on swine, 

 says: "Among the black breeds, by universal 

 consent, the improved Berkshire hog stands 

 at the head of the list, either to breed pure or 

 to cross with inferior breeds. The Berkshire 

 was originally a large breed of a black and 

 white and spotted sandy color. The 'late' 

 Lord Barrington, who died in 1829, did a 

 great deal towards improving the Berkshire 

 breed, and the improved Berkshires are al- 

 most all traced back to his herd. They are 

 now considered by Berkshire fanners to be 

 divided into middle and a small breed. If 

 first class they should be covered with long 

 black silky hair, so soft that the problem of 

 'uuiking a silk purse out of a sow's ear' might 

 be solved with a prize Berkshire. The white 

 should be confined to 'four white feet, a white 

 si)ot between the eyes, and a few white hairs 

 behind each shoulder.' " 



The Berkshire, now so far improved of it- 

 self, has been extensively used to give size 

 and constitution to other breeds, to the Es- 

 sex, etc. It must be regarded as a great and 

 desirable acquisition to our American swine, 

 and we are glad to see so many fine specimens 

 at our fall cattle shows. — Mass. Ploughmom. 



Money in Hogs. — We have repeated that 

 there was money in pork if farmers would 

 raise good stock hogs and take advantage of 

 the improved breeds introduced into our State. 

 We are furnished with proof of this as fol- 

 lows: Mr. Joseph Oppenheimer, of Colville, 

 Oregon, two years ago purchafed a good Berk- 

 shire boar pig of S. G. Reed, for the purpose 

 improving his stock of hogs. He recently 

 kUled twenty graded hogs 18 months old and 

 their average weight, dressed, was 366 pounds 

 — two of them weighing respectively 470 and 

 and 478 pounds. Who cau doubt, then, that 

 It will pay to improve our breed of hogs? It 

 is a great mistake to suppose that hogs can 

 only be fattened with wheat. Every farmer 

 should have a boiler conveniently fixed to 

 cook hog feed, and then he could utUize all 

 his root crops, boil potatoes, squashes, apples, 

 etc., add a little chopped wheat to strengthen 

 the diet, and so insure hogs well and cheaply 

 fattened. There is no better opening for a 

 sure thing in connection with farming than 

 for every farmer to raise at least twenty hogs 

 and fatten thus each year. We even assert 

 that he would not lose money on them if he 

 had to feed them wheat worth a dollar a 

 bushel. But the first thing to do is to im- 

 prove the stock of animals. — WUlamelle Far- 

 mer. 



Wheat or Corn as Feed for Hogs. — A cor- 

 respondent of the Kansas Farmer says a large 

 hog feeder, in Illinois, informs him that he 

 has produced eleven jiounds of pork from a 

 bushel of corn, and seventeen pounds from a 

 bushel of wheat. He grinds the wheat.pours 

 boiling water over it and allows it to stand 

 some hours. 



The Most Nutritious Food. 



The following, according to the celebrated 

 Dr. J. C. Beck, shows tho amount in pounds 

 nourishment contained in a hundred jiounds 

 each of the article of food as stated below: 



Corn, 97 Ihs; peas, 93; beans, 90; rice, 90; 

 wheat, 85; barley, 83; rye, 80; bread, 80; meat 

 S.'j; beets, 18; carrots, 14; turnips and gi-eens, 

 about 8. 



See how many of the family can remember 

 lUid give tho per cent, in the order as above. 



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