No. 7. 



The Hog-Pen a Mine of Wealth. 



207 



yield. A letter from Charles Alexander, 

 near Peebles, in Scotland, addressed to Sir 

 John Sinclair, in 181'2, contains much valua- 

 tle information on this subject. " This in- 

 telligent farmer had long been impressed 

 with the great importance of the urine of 

 cattle as a manure, and he set about to dis- 

 cover, by along and well-conducted series of 

 experiments, the best metliod of collecting 

 and applying it. He began by digging a pit 

 contiguous to the feeding stable, but distinct 

 altogether from that which was appropriated 

 for the reception of the dung. The dimen- 

 sions of this pit were thirty-six feet square, 

 and tour feet deep, surrounded on all sides by 

 a wall, and the solid contents were one hun- 

 dred and ninety-two yards. Having selected 

 the nearest spot where he could find loamy 

 earth — and this he always took from the sur- 

 face of some field under cultivation — he pro- 

 ceeded to fill it, and found that, with three 

 men and ten horses, he could easily accom- 

 -plish twenty-eight cubic yards a day; and 

 the whole expense of transporting the earth 

 ■did not exceed twenty-two dollars. When 

 the work was complete, he levelled the sur- 

 face of the heap in a line with the sewer 

 which conducted the urine from the interior 

 of the building, on purpose that it might be 

 distributed with regularity, and might satu- 

 rate the whole from top to bottom. The 

 quantity conveyed to it, he estimated at about 

 eight hundred gallons. The urine was sup- 

 plied by fourteen cattle, kept there for five 

 months on fodder and turneps. The contents 

 of the pit produced two hundred and eighty- 

 eight loads, allowing two cubic yards to be 

 taken out in three carts ; and he spread forty 

 of these on each acre, so that this urine in 

 five months produced a compost sufficient for 

 the fertilization of seven acres of land. He 

 states farther, that lie had tried this experiment 

 for ten years, and had used indiscriminately 

 in the same field either the rotted cow-dung 

 or the saturated earth ; and in all stages of 

 the crop he had never been able to find any 

 perceptible diflference. But what is still 

 more wonderful, he found his compost lasted 

 in its effects as many years as his best ma- 

 nures ; and he therefore boldly avers that a 

 load of each is of equivalent value. Mr. Ro- 

 bert Smith, of Baltimore, has his stables con- 

 structed in such a manner that all the liquid 

 discharges of his cattle are conducted, to- 

 gether with the wash of the barn yard, into a 

 cistern, pumped into a hogshead, and applied 

 in a liquid state to the soil which it is wished 

 ■to manure. This mode of making use of this 

 substance, is likewise recommended in the 

 -Code of Agriculture: — "The advantages of 

 .irrio"ating grass lands with cow urine almost 

 exceed belief Mr. Harley, of Glasgow, 

 (who keeps a large dairy in that town,) by 



using cow urine, cuts some small fields of 

 grass six times, and the average of each cut- 

 ting is tiileon inches in length. There arc 

 disadvantages, however, connected with this 

 mode of apfilying this powerful manure. It 

 must be applied soon alter it is formed, or 

 oftentimes the putrefiictive process will com- 

 mence and deprive it of part of its eHicacy. 

 An;i, as urine is of a scorching quality, it is 

 unsafe to apply it to growing crops in great 

 heat or drought. Hence it is unadvisable to 

 use it except lor grass, after the month of 

 April and May, unless diluted. It is par- 

 ticularly useful in the spring, when the ap- 

 plication of liquid manure gives a new im- 

 petus to the plant, and makes its growth 

 more vigorous. This manure forces newly 

 planted cabbages in a most remarkable man- 

 ner." 



In addition to pastures, pens, especially for 

 fattening hogs, will be rec^uired, and upon the 

 construction of these with reference to secur- 

 ing the double objects of convenience and 

 economy, great attention should be paid. 

 Many of the styes, even on extensive and 

 otherwise well provided farms, are miserable 

 structures, ill adapted to the comforts of 

 their inmates and the purposes proposed by 

 their erection. Mowbray, while writing on 

 the conveniences for swine, remarks:* — 

 " Room and ventilation are objects of the 

 greatest importance, where numbers are kept, 

 and dry lodgings, without which essentials 

 success must not be expected. Nor are 

 swine, in whatever state, proof against ex- 

 cessive cold, for I have known instances of 

 their being frozen to death in their sty, and 

 have always remarked, that severe weather 

 materially checks their thriving, unless they 

 be sufficiently defended from the chilling ef- 

 fects of the air. The sty, situated upon a 

 dry foundation, as well as sheltered above, 

 should be paved at bottom, to the end that it 

 may be kept clean and dry, the operation for 

 which should be daily performed ; for although 

 pigs will wallow in the mire, they are yet 

 more thrifty in clean lodgings. As swine, 

 confined, usually employ their leisure time in 

 demolishing with their teeth the wood woiu 

 witliin their reach, the modern cast iron 

 troughs are preferable ; at any rate wooden 

 troughs ought to be iron bound." " The pig- 

 ging house should be warm and dry, and secure 

 from the inroads of foxes and other vermin, 

 which have been known to steal sucking pigs 

 from the sleeping or absent sow. Short 

 straw is preferable for a bed, but in not too 

 great quantity,* lest the pigs bo smothered 

 beneath it; this should be renewed, with due 

 regard to cleanliness ; and, as the unwieldy 

 sow is apt to crush her young against the 



* Mowbray on Poultry, &c., p. 163. 



