88 



Essay on Jigriculture. 



Vol. IV. 



SWINE. 



Mr. Phinney has taken great pains to vcO- 

 prove his breed of swine, and probably there 

 are none superior in the state. As we have 

 a promise from liim of a description of his pigs 

 and piggery, for the N. P]. Farmer, we shall 

 not enlarge upon this subject. He prefers a 

 cross of the Berkshire and Mackey to any 

 other, and most of his pigs for slaughter are 

 of this description. He has the full blooded 

 Berksiiire, Mackey, and other breeds, and 

 mixes to suit himself We noticed a sow 

 lately imported from England, called tlie Es- 

 sex half black : the hinder part of the animal 

 is jet black, and the forward half white. — 

 There are some good points about her, and 

 she may prove a valuable acquisition to his 

 stock ; not having recovered from her sea 

 voyage, she does not appear now as she will 

 after a ^&\v weeks of good keeping. There 

 is an old sow here, quite an object of curiosi- 

 ty, (we do not recollect the breed,) that 

 weighs nine hundred pounds, a monstrous 

 overgrovvn animal : she had been turned out 

 of her pen to enjoy her liberty a little, which 

 she did not, however, seem to appreciate 

 much, as all the room she wanted appeared to 

 be enough to turn round and lie down upon. 

 She looks as though she might be the parent 

 of a most numerous offspring, but we under- 

 stood she was without issue, having appa- 

 rently no inclination to form an intimacy with 

 the other sex. The number of swine is about 

 one hundred and forty, the care of which em 

 ploys one man constantly. 



BARN — OUT BUILDINGS. 



The barns and other buildings for the ac 

 commodation of stock are convenient and 

 comfortable, with sufficient room for the hay 

 and grain produced on the farm. About one 

 hundred tons of hay are cut annually, part of 

 which is sold. For every ton of hay sold, 

 one cord of manure is purchased. To im- 

 prove the land and keep it in high tilth, it is 

 necessary of course to manufacture a large 

 amount of manure. This is done first by the 

 hogs. The man who has the care of them is 

 constantly employed at odd lioiirs in furnish- 

 ing them materials, such as meadow mud, 

 peat, v;eeds, &c.: second, by sheep: in au- 

 tumn one hundred and fifty or two hundred 

 wethers are purchased from the droves, 

 and fed througii the winter : by March they 

 are in good flesh and bring a high ])rice, 

 and pay well fl)r their keeping; tlieir yards 

 being furnished with a plenty of nuid and 

 litter, when mixed by their excrements 

 makes a rich compost: third — by the otiier 

 •stock and the manure purchased, which 

 is carefully mixed witii twice the quantity of 

 meadow manure. One cord of this compo- 

 sition is considered about equal to one cord 

 of stable manure alone. 



In making our observations upon this place, 

 we feel as if it was not in our power to do it 

 justice, as we spent but a few hours upon it. 

 Every part of it shows, that by science, in- 

 dustry and skill, it has been rendere-d worthy 

 of being ranked among the first of well cul- 

 tivated farms in New England, and its pro- 

 prietor worthy of all praise tor the laudable 

 example he has set for the imitation of his 

 agricultural brethren. — iV. E. Farmer. 



For the Farmers" Cabinet. 



Essays on Agricwltiire. Ko. VIII. 



BY JOSEPH CLOUD. 



A brief notice having been taken of tlie 

 different substances entering into the compo- 

 sition of vegetables ; we are still, however, 

 at a loss to comprehend the multiplicity and 

 diversity of operations, continually going on 

 in vegetation, at the same time producing the 

 vast variety of combinations, possessing dif- 

 ferent properties all formed out of the same 

 ingredient!?. When we consider the unerring 

 and mysterious laws that govern the vegeta- 

 ble economy, we are struck with astonish- 

 ment at the order and regularity with which 

 every oWect is obtained, and every tiling is 

 prepared for its intended purpose. It is too 

 wonderful to escape observation, that a few 

 simple substances, possessing individual inhe- 

 rent laws for their government, which, by their 

 diversity of combinations, shoald produce all 

 the phenomena of the vegetable kingdom, 

 when we contemplate the laws that govern 

 the ultimate particles of the matter entering 

 into the composition of vegetables, which dis- 

 poses them to unite, in different definite pro- 

 portions, with similar and dissimilar particles of 

 matter in the form of vegetable organization,* 

 every change in the proportion necessarily 

 producing a different effect in the organic 

 mass. One particle more or less of any va- 

 riety of matter may produce tlie cublage or 

 deadly nightshade, when an increase or dimi- 

 nution of the same variety of matter mny 

 produce plants possessed of very different 

 properties. From the circumstance of tlie 

 combination of every other variety of matter 

 operating in a similar way, by pursuing the 

 effects naturally resulting from the various 

 combinations of the same causes, it is easy to 

 conceive how the whole vegetable phenome- 



* It is to be understoofl that whenovor ultimatfi par- 

 tides of (litt'erciit kiiiils of inalter, uiiiliiifr iluinically, 

 and forming' soliils, thi-y may he with propiii'ty consiil- 

 ered as orKanizaiions,' and coiifequeiitly bccoine pnv- 

 ernod by a new law resiiltiiii; from tlm co-oi>eration of 

 the individnal laws inheriMit in the paiticli's of matter 

 fonnins the organized mass. It is an immutable prin- 

 ciple in the operations of matter, that tlie siime causes 

 in the same pioporlions, and under similar circum- 

 stances, will proiliice similar elfects. and that by a va- 

 riation in the |)roportions of any of ihu causes, differ- 

 ent effects are produced 



