30 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



[Chap. I. 



the sow about half a pint of good rum or gin, whicli soon produces intoxica- 

 tion, and the drunken mother becomes entirely liarmless toward her youiiLr, 

 and will ever accommodate lier iiooition to the best advantage of the pig-, 

 retaining this disposition ever afterward." The editor confirms this statement 

 from cases within his own knowledge. 



15. Pig-Brocdiiij?. — Xotwithstanding the fact that more people are interested 

 in the breeding of pigs than of any other class of domestic animals, the atten- 

 tion paid to improvement of the stock is very small. How few farmers know 

 that the sow should alwa^'S be larger than the male, and that he shouhl 

 always be of the most j^erfect form, of good color, and perfectly sound and 

 healthy, because almost invariably the pigs take the qualities of the sire in- 

 stead of the mother; that is, his good or bad points will preponderate largely 

 over those of the sow. Farmers, please think of this fact, and profit by it. 



IG. Large SlOSSt — Isaac Harrison, of Burlington County, N. J., fatted, in 

 185S, 32 hogs that averaged 5C91bs. each; and William Taylor, of Ocean 

 County, fatted 30 that averaged 537 lbs. each. Thomas Hood, of Ocean 

 County, fatted 41 that averaged 533 lbs. each. So says C. W. Hartshorn, 

 of Burlington County, who sends us a list of weights, among which are very 

 few under 500 lbs. ; the lightest that we notice weighs 428 lbs. 



17. Gross and Net Weight of Swine. — The rule of ascertaining the net 

 weight of fat hogs is to deduct one fifth of the gross weight. It is an easy 

 way to make the calculation, or red\iction of gross to net weight, by using 

 the decimal 3-10 as a raultijilier, cutting off one right-hand figure of the 

 product, to show the net sum. Thus: 10 hogs weigh 2,729 lbs. ; multiply 

 by. 8, which will make net 2,183.2 lbs. 



If you have the gross weight of a drove of hogs at home, M-liich you may 

 have taken to market and sold at net weight, and wish to ascertai-n how the 

 net and gross compare, take your sum of the net weight, say 2,183.2. Divide 

 by 8-10, and you will find the cpiotient 2,729. 



This will be found a very convenient and useful rule. Sometimes a person 

 may be offered one sum as a gross price, and another as a net price of the 

 same lot, and would like to know at once which offer is the best. This is 

 quickly done. You have simply to apply the same rule of division by eight 

 tenths to the price, instead of weight. For instance suppose the offer is — 

 as it sometimes is in Xew York — $5 25 per cwt. gross, or $6 50 net. Divide 

 $5 25 by 8-10, the quotient will be $6 56.2, showing that it will be six cents 

 and two mills ]ier cwt. gross to the owner's advantage to sell at So 25 gross. 



18. Salting Meat Warm.— C. Bovie, of Gullin-airie, Michigan, asks : " Will 

 pork cure, if i)ackcd before the animal heat is all out of it ?" He then 

 answers : " Last year I killed my hogs and packed them while warm. I 

 have some of the pork now, and I never ate any sweeter pork than this is. 

 The most of farmers think pork salted, while warm, will not keep." 



We have tried the experiment repeatedly of salting pork as soon as we 

 could cut it up after dressing, and certainly prefer it, as it will, when dry- 

 salted, cure much quicker. 



