No. S. 



Cabbages, as Food for Hogs. 



263 



all these thorns have disappeared, and their 

 place has been supplied by fruit-bearing 

 branches. Yet all the distinctive character- 

 istics of the tree, th-,3 structure of its wood 

 and bark, the shape and arrangement of its 

 leaves, the form and aggregation of its flowers 

 — indeed, all that a botanist would consider 

 characteristic of the plant, have remained 

 unclianged. 



Perhaps the most remarkable changes 

 which result from a change of soil, are those 

 of organs of one kind into those of another. 

 It is by such clianges that all our double 

 flowers have been obtained. The organs 

 which are most commonly converted into 

 others, are the stamens, and next to them the 

 pistils. In the hundred-leafed rose, and some 

 other double roses, almost all the stamens 

 have benn converted into petals: in the 

 flowering cherry, tiie pistils have been con- 

 verted into green leaves — in the double 

 columbine, a part of the stamens have been 

 converted into petals, another part into nec- 

 taries, whilst a third part have retained their 

 original form. The perfect regularity with 

 which the changes have taken place in the 

 last mentioned dower, is worthy of notice. 

 Wherever one stamen has been converted 

 into a petal, a corresponding one has always 

 been converted into a nectary ; and so regu- 

 larly have tiiese changes proceeded, that by 

 careful dissection, you may separate one of 

 these double flowers into several single ones, 

 each perfect in itself, and destitute of none 

 of its appropriate parts. Where flowers have 

 been doubled by art, the only sure way of 

 propagating them, is by some means by which 

 the new plant should be nothing more than a 

 continuation of the old one, as by slips or 

 cuttings. Whenever the seed is resorted to, 

 there is danger that the plant will revert to 

 its original type, and the flowers appear 

 single again. A change of colour also fre- 

 quently results from a change of soil. Re- 

 specting the nature of this change, no fi.xed 

 laws have been yet discovered. As a general 

 thing, hov/ever, the brightness of the colours 

 of a flower is injured by enriching the soil in 

 which it grows; and hence florists, when 

 they wish to procure tulips of very bright 

 colours, prefer planting the bulbs in a light 

 sandy soil, which is rather poor than other- 

 wise. — Farmer''s Register. 



Scurrilous epithets are like foul birds, 

 which transiently disturb and disfigure tlie 

 I foliage of the trees on which they light, but 

 ' whose nature is never mistaken ; for they 

 , carry on their feathers the pollutions of the 

 ( nest in which they were hatched. 



TKOE FARItlERS' CABINET. 



PHILADELPHIA, MARCH 10, 1840. 



Cabljage, as Food for Hogs* 



A gentleman remarked, in our hearing, a 

 few days since, that cabbage was a valuable 

 food for store hogs. The idea was new to 

 us, and we inquired the manner of feeding. 

 In reply, he gave us the following as the re- 

 sult of his experience, the last summer. 

 Having a fine patch of plants, and observing 

 the bottom leaves beginning to decay, he di- 

 rected his farmer to procure a water-tight 

 cask, and gather a bushel of the lower leaves 

 from the cabbage plants, and deposit them in 

 the barrel, with a handful of salt, and one 

 quart of corn meal. On this was poured the 

 contents of the kitchen swill-pail, and the 

 whole was suffered to stand undisturbed for 

 twenty-four hours, when the process was re- 

 peated, with the exception of the salt — and 

 60, every day, until the cask was filled with 

 a mass of wilted leaves, about six quarts of 

 corn meal, potatoe peelings, crumbs of bread, 

 &c., from the kitchen ; all in a state of par- 

 tial fermentation. He now commenced feed- 

 ing it to the hogs, and they eat with greedi- 

 ness, leaving other food for this. They were 

 evidently as fond of this kind of mush, as 

 ever " Mynheer" was of sour-krout. 



While the hogs were consuming the con- 

 tents of the first barrel, a second was in 

 course of being filled, and so alternately, till 

 the stock of leaves was exhausted, which 

 was about four weeks. 



This gentleman gave his opinion, that he 

 could not have prepared any other kind of 

 food for his hogs, known to him, at double the 

 expense, that would have produced results so 

 decidedly beneficial. An increase of appetite, 

 improvement in their general appearance, 

 and better heart, was the result of this 

 me'hod. The cabbages, he thinks, were great- 

 ly improved by plucking the redundant fo- 

 liage ; and he intends to plant a large patch 

 of cabbages, the coming season, more fully to 

 test the advantages of this kind of feed for 

 hogs. We invite him, and others who may 

 " experiment" in the business, to give us the 

 results, for publication. 



