1S8 



On Fatte?img Hogs. 



Vol. IV. 



the topmost joint being covered at least two 

 inches deep. Such bacon will keep as long 

 as you desire. 



Yours, respectfully, 



Tiios. S. Dabney. 



Hinds County, 8th Dec. 1830. 



From the Farmers' Register. 



On Fattening Hogs, by Cold-Soalced and 



Fermented Food. 



You complain very justly, I think, that 

 many of your first contributors have grown 

 weary in well doing; in other words, that 

 their communications have fallen off in point 

 of numbers. Although I myself am uncon- 

 scious of being one of the culprits, I deter- 

 mined, immediately u]X)n reading your re- 

 marks, to act as if I really was one, and felt 

 anxious to evince my repentance by forth- 

 with uiditing to you an epistle of some kind 

 or other; but could think of nothing, at first, 

 that appeared worth communicating ; luckily, 

 however, in the midst of this quandary, I 

 picked up at second hand, trom a friend, some- 

 thing in regard to the mode of fattening hogs, 

 which seems to be well worthy of notice. 



First, however, I must tell you, that hav- 

 ing, for a year or two past, enrolled myself 

 in the fraternity of root-steamers for stock, 

 (horses and sheep excepted,) my own expe- 

 rience is not yet sufficient to report to you 

 any result of trials made by mj^sclf I must 

 farther confess that, as a novice in the steam- 

 ing business, I still retain somewhat of tliat 

 incredulity which I always feel relative to 

 the benefits of any practice, when they ap- 

 pear to me so exaggerated as those do which 

 are generally ascribed to the steaming process. 

 But being open to conviction, and utterly 

 condemning the old and common wasteful 

 method of fattening our hogs, I was much 

 gratified to hear the account which I will 

 now give you of the mode practised by some 

 gentleman, whose name I forget, in King and 

 Queen or King William county. 



One or more casks or tubs are nearly filled ; 

 with alternate layers of chopped cabbages or | 

 roots, and broken ears of corn. Enough boil-j 

 ing water is then poured into the vessels, to 

 cover the food. Tliis is suflered to stand 

 about twenty-four iiours before it is given to 

 the hogs, by which time some fermentation 

 takes place, if the fattening process is com- 

 menced as early in the season as ho com- 

 mences it, which I understand he dons long 

 before frost. A constant supply of this food 

 is given until a very short time previous to 

 the hogs being killed, during which they have 

 corn alone, which is generally deemed neces- 

 sary to harden their fat. 



By this method we may save tlie expense 

 of steaming apparatus of every kind, such as 



have been heretofore recommended in our 

 agricultural papers. It is true that some of 

 these cost very little compared^to the advan- 

 tages derived from them ; but this little, even 

 in the cheapest that I have seen mentioned, 

 is worth saving, if it can be done by some 

 contrivance still cheaper, and preferable on 

 other accounts, as the one which 1 have just 

 described, appears fo be. 



I am gratified that I have it in my power 

 to give you the foregoing information at this 

 particular time ; for I have long been con- 

 vinced that we should probably save, at least 

 half the expense of fattening our pork, if we 

 would commence doing it by the first of Sep- 

 tember, or even sooner, and give much less 

 corn than we generally do. To postpone 

 putting up our hogs for the sake of the acorns 

 and chinkapins that they may be able to find 

 by incessant travelling about in search of 

 them, is as complete an illustration as I have 

 ever known of the old proverb, — '■'■penny 

 wise and pound foolish :" since to say nothing 

 of the notorious fact that hogs especially, fat- 

 ten much faster in warm weather tl*n in 

 cold, and when they can fill their bellies 

 without having to travel miles for the where- 

 withal, (being the laziest animals upon earthy 

 except the gluttonous man, and his prototype, 

 the quadruped called the sloth,) more of them 

 are lost by theft, if sufiisred to run at large 

 during the nut and acorn season, than would 

 pay, twice over, the whole expense of feed- 

 ing them in pens with food that costs us little 

 or nothinn-, excopt the labour of collecting 

 and preparing it. Even that portion of this 

 stock 'which we call "oj/< Ao^s" could pro- 

 bably be kept much more economically, if 

 not sufiered to run almo.st wild for lialf the- 

 year, and were supplied with food by their 

 owners, instead of being left to supply them- 

 selves. As they are coinmonly managed, we 

 may truly estimate the annual loss, in most 

 cases, at nearly or quite half of tlie whole 

 number; for many are killed for trespassing ' 

 on our crops — starvation during tliree-fourths 

 of the year^ having taught them to be thieves ; 

 whilst a great number are stolen in the fall, 

 after they get a little flesh on their bones, for 

 a reason which I once heard alleilgcd by an 

 old negro in extenuation of the practice of 

 stealing them, that "liog meat was so mise- 

 rable sweet his fellow sarvants could not help 

 stealing it." 



Every man is responsible for his own acts,,- 

 and f(ii- the acts of his agents, within the scope 

 of their authority. 



No one can change his mind to the injury - 

 of another. 



Trust not a profane person. 



Thou shalt govern many, if reason govera 

 thee. ^ 



