No. 7. 



The Hog-Pen a Mine of fVealth. 



205 



that generally derived from the stable or 

 yard." 



Another writer in the Yankee Farmer,* 

 says : — " My plan is this ; yard the hoij-s 

 through the year. Give each hog, to work 

 upon, ten loads of manure from the swamp. 

 Some men thiiik to avoid expense in keeping, 

 by permitting their hogs to ' run at large,' or 

 in a large pasture. This is a bad practice; 

 the hogs 'run away' so much of their flesh, 

 that it requires nearly as much to keep them 

 in a thriving state as if they were yarded. 

 If it did not, the pasture would be much more 

 preferable for other stock. More than this, 

 the hogs will convert about four loads more 

 of mud into good manure, which will more 

 than twice pay the extra cost of yarding." 



Another correspondent still, of the same pa- 

 per, remarks rf — " I keep my sty well littered 

 with straw, leaves, weeds, soil from the v/oods, 

 and meadow earth, obtained from ditching, 

 by carting, together with that put into the 

 yard, from two to ten loads per week. I 

 sometimes put a few handfuls of rye in differ- 

 ent places in the yard, and let in the hogs. 

 Feeding them there for a few days, they com- 

 pletely stir up and commute the contents of 

 the yard. I am confident that I make four 

 tunes the quantity of manure my father did, 

 and with no increase in the number of stock, 

 and of a little better quality, too, comparative- 

 ly none of its strength being washed away by 

 the rains and evaporated by the sun," 



The suggestions of a correspondent to the 

 Northern Farmer, quoted in the Farmer's 

 Register, contain much information on this 

 subject. After stating the reasons which in- 

 duced him to abandon the ordinary mode of 

 suffering his pigs to run at large, for the bet- 

 ter one of confining them in pastures — and his 

 subsequent exchange of this for a smaller en- 

 closure, which he contracted from time to time, 

 until satisfied that a yard of twenty feet by 

 fourteen, was sufficient for six hogs, if well 

 supplied with materials to make nianure in 

 to advantage, he thus continues: — " My me- 

 thod of supplying these materials is the fol- 

 lowing; after having cleared their yard at 

 the season of planting, I put into it such 

 portions of straw as I may have on hand aft;er 

 the season of foddering is past; and if I have 

 not a sufficient quantity of this to furnish the 

 necessarv supply till vegetable substances at- 

 tain a sufficient growth to be profitably col- 

 lected, r put in earth, collected from the low 

 places by the side of the highway ; though this 

 I more g-enerally place in or near my barn yard, 

 in a situation to receive and retain the wash 

 that might otherwise escape from that. Brakes 

 and weeds of any kind are valuable. These I 

 make use of, to the extent they are attainable, 



♦ Vol. iii. p. 410. 



t Vol. i p. 67. 



when in a green state, as I consider green vege- 

 table substances, for this purpose, far more 

 valuable than dry. Potato tops, when pulled for 

 early use, before they become dry and shriv- 

 elled, I consider equal if not superior to any 

 other green substance for this purpose. Pea 

 vines J usually put into my hog yard after the 

 peas are thrashed off; and ifsonie are put in be- 

 fore being thrashed, they are as grnlefully re- 

 ceived by the inmates of the yard. The quanti- 

 ty of manure made by my hogs is, for eacli one, 

 double that made by each cow for the same 

 period of time. The quantity of vegetable 

 matter suitable for manure, that remain in 

 most crops after the fruit and grain is select- 

 ed, and the amount of manure that can be ob- 

 tained if this matter is carefully collected and 

 carted to the pens of hogs and other animals 

 are indeed astonishing. " The expressed 

 cane," says J. H. Covvper, in an able com- 

 munication to the Southern Agriculturist, 

 "tops and leaves, from an acre of cane, yield 

 about 10,000 lbs. of dry vegetable matter. 

 An acre of corn, including blades, stalks, 

 husks, and cobs, gives about 3500 lbs., wlien 

 the yield of corn has been twenty bushels ; 

 and the after crop of peas 1000 lbs. — together 

 4.000 lbs. An acre of solid peas 2000 lbs. 

 The potato vines, pumpkins, and turneps, 

 being eaten green, contribute only to the 

 production of fluid manure. The total quan- 

 tity of vegetable matter to be applied to the 

 manuring of sixteen acres in crop, will there- 

 fore be — 



Four acres in corn, at 4500 lbs. per acre 18,000 lbs. 



One acre in peas and turneps 2,000 " 



Three acres in cane 30,(00 " 



50,000 

 which, if merely rotted by the rain, will 

 yield 100,000 lbs. of manure, and if rotted by 

 urine and dung of stock from 1-50,000 to 200,- 

 000 lbs. or at least 25,000 lbs. of manure to 

 each of the four acres proposed to be ma- 

 nured. 



We are inclined to dwell still longer on 

 the subject of manure, because its great im- 

 portance, and the proper modes of collecting 

 the greatest quantity, seem in many portions 

 of our country to be wholly overlooked. 

 Especially is this the case throughout the 

 western states. Trusting to the extreme 

 luxuriance of the soil, the lands of many 

 farmers are burdened with one exhausting 

 crop after another, until at lenirth the pro- 

 ductiveness of the farm is materially reduced, 

 and finally measures are necessarily resorted 

 to, to improve an impoverished condition of 

 the soil which proper manuring would have 

 prevented altogether. Many persons seem 

 to consider a yard where the dung of ani- 

 mals can be collected, sufficient for all pur- 

 poses — little dreaming that upon the con- 

 struction of this enclosure depends both the 



