Seo. 2.] 



SWINE— FEEDING THEM HONEY. 



27 



own pork. There is another way in wliich you can make the pig-pen 

 valuable. If you have a spot of ground that you want to enrich and work 

 deeply and thoroughly for fruit-trees or for garden vegetables, plant it with 

 Jerusalem artichokes, and thfen yard your hogs upon it, taking care to give 

 them room enough, so as not to necessitate them to make a quagmire. 

 Again, you may use these animals to advantage if you have a piece of grass 

 land infested with grubs. Fence off a piece, and shut your swine in upon 

 it for a few days without feed, and if they leave a sod unturned or grub 

 uneaten it will be a wonder. It is the best preparation of such a spot for a 

 hoed crop, or for sowing again in grass, that can be given. There is no good 

 reason why the pig should be always kept in idleness or mischief. Let him 

 be trained to be useful in his life as well as at his death. 



9. Hay Seed for llogSi — A correspondent of the C'o«n^/-y 6^t'?ii'Z('?««n writes: 

 In addition to the grain and meal given to growing hogs in the sty, they 

 should have a daily allowance of green clover, or in winter, when this is not 

 available, a liberal allowance of hay-seed from the barn, mixed with their 

 slop, which they will eat with avidity. He knows of no mode by which so 

 great an amount of growth and weight can be induced, with equal cost of 

 food, in the winter season, as by tliis haying system. 



10. Cinders for PigSi — J. J. Mechi, of Tiptree Hall, England, says, in 

 publishing his experience in fattening swine, that among other things, he 

 has learned the fact " that pigs are very fond of coal-ashes or cinders, and 

 that you can hardly fat pigs properly on boarded floors without giving them 

 a moderate supply daily, or occasionally." He says : " In the absence of 

 coal-ashes, burned clay or brick-dust is a good substitute. If you do not 

 supply ashes, they M'ill gnaw or eat the brick walls of their sheds. I leave 

 to science to explain the cause of this •want. It is notorious that coal- 

 dealers, whose pigs have access to the coals, are generally successful pig 

 feeders. Tliose who find that their pigs, when shut up, do not progress 

 favorably, will do well to try this plan. A neighbor of mine found that a 

 sc>ire of fat pigs consume quite a basket of burned clay ashes daily. We 

 know that there is an abundance of alkali in ashes." 



11. Parched Corn and Uoney for Hoss. — A correspondent of the 77/r/7(/rt«'Z 

 Ih//mcr<it, p\iblished at reekskill, N. Y., furnishes that paper with the fol- 

 lowing coumiunication : 



A few yeai"s ago I chanced in Albany to meet a farmer who is noted for 

 raising unusually heavy hogs. Tlie year before he had brought to market 

 one that weighed over TOO lbs., and said that year that he should have one 

 of 900 lbs., or near that mark. As there always seems to be a cause for every 

 effect, I was anxious to know tlie course he pursued. 



" Well," said he, '-you must first select the right kind of a critter. Get 

 the right breed, and then pick out the good-natured ones from the litter ; I 

 can't aftbrd to feed a cross critter ; I sell them when they are pigs." " How 

 can you judge V said I. " Well, if you watch them when they are feeding, 

 you will find that some pigs are allers fighting about their victuals, and 



