606 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 10 



I papsed through a part of Maryland, a part ot 

 our lirDe-stone valley, and some of our mountain 

 country. The whole line of my travel, was 

 through a blessed and noble country. Every 

 thiuij like larming- and crope, was marked criti- 

 cally; and I was the more watchfial because of 

 mv expenses, that 1 might get as much informa- 

 tion as would be worth the money expended. 

 Since then, I have made an excursion into the 

 mountain country, upon a short visit to some 

 friends near Salem, in Faucpiier county, much to 

 my satisliiciion and profit. No |)oet's fancy could 

 imagine a more beautiful or liealthy country. At 

 a sinifle glance of tbe eye, you see hundreds of fit 

 cattle, fieedin^ in rich pastures, or drinking of the 

 pure stream which winds its way through the val- 

 leys like a tlucad cf silver. Much ol' this coun- 

 try, as it should be, is devoted to grazing. It is 

 too precipitous for the free use of the plough. 

 Wash, however, as it may, under careless cultiva- 

 tion, it is easy to see that the plough brings up 

 as good land, as the floods had previously svvepi 

 away. I must believe that those hills are as old 

 almost as mother earth ; else why should they be 

 so rotten, ripe, so admirably fitted" f)r the produc- 

 tion of bread and grass ? Compare them with 

 the plain, from the base of the hills to tide-water, 

 and what a meai^er result you have ! The one, 

 from its constituiional combinations, indestructi- 

 ble — the other, young, and in its very callow-fea- 

 ther, havinif neither constitution nor skin, that 

 can be wrought into valuable uses tor man or 

 beast. But, sir, permit me to return to the hills. I 

 first visited the farm of Dr. Loughborough, who 

 pursues a mixed business of larming and grazing; 

 ^:he latter particularly cla med my attention. His 

 /fiVi;caUle were yet upon the fields, being daily fed 

 ^ witJTL.corn, but were soon to be sold. His stock 

 cattle were also upon the fields, but soon to be 

 taken into his barn, which is warm, and well con- 

 structed Icr feeding 150 head, two to a stall, each 

 confined to an upright post, upon the opposite side 

 of each stall. At the rear of the stalls, is a long, 

 tight trouo'h, to receive the urine and excrement; 

 in fi'ont, for containing food, was a capacious 

 trough. The cattle are fed upon hay, straw, corn- 

 stalks, &c. &c., all passed through a cutting box, 

 operated by horse-power. Such quantities are 

 given, of this cu' food, two or three times a day, 

 as will keep them in thriving condition. The 

 urine and excrement are laken every morning in 

 carle to the field, and lifflitly spread upon grass or 

 grain. It is not intended that the cattle shall ever 

 leave their stalls before the clover begins to blos- 

 som. They receive their water, as often as want- 

 ed, ii'om pipes comniunica'ing vvhh fine, clear 

 water. 



Immediately adjoming, is the grazing farm of 

 Mr. Baker, whose feeding establishment is yet 

 more extensive. His arrangements are for feed- 

 ing 300 head, in nearly the same manner. These 

 are new things in Viririnia, and well calculated to 

 show that our march is onward. I conless that 

 my mind was much perplexed in relation to cut- 

 ting so much food ; but when I came to results — 

 when imagination saw two or three hundred tons 

 of hay, and straw, and corn-stalks, reduced to an 

 animalized batter — and that iuunedialely returned 

 to the land — I w^as absolutely overwhelmed. I 

 became breathless from wading throu,o;h rich crops 

 of grain and grass, and was near forgetting to re- 



commend to them a dressing of lime, of which 

 they have a mountain. By the way, let me say, 

 that I am suspected of insanity, upon the subject 

 of lime. It has become a sacred and inviolable 

 rule with me, to plough no land that is not previ- 

 ously limed. In this year I have limed more than 

 200 acres, and now have ten or twelve thousand 

 bushels of shells in my yard, !or winter and s|iring 

 operations. It is laborious work to haul so many 

 shells six or eight miles ; but when ! look at re- 

 sults, hard work becomes perfc^ct play. My ser- 

 vants are as mad as mysell^ lor ihey now think 

 that nothing can be done williout lime ; and 1 am 

 free to sav, tha' without lime, I would not receive 

 worn-out land as a iiifl. Your book upon " Cal 

 careous Manures" will give you immortality, and 

 your country, millions. 



Lime. 



From tlie Genesee Farmer. 



HINTS OJV MAKING PORK, DERIVEn FROM EX- 

 PER1E>CE. 



3Ir. Tucker — I have heard some farmers say, 

 only give them hogs and corn, and they could 

 make pork. This is true, perhaps; but two indi- 

 viduals with hogs and corn of the same quality 

 and ffoodness, one will make the fbittening of pork 

 a profitable business, while with the other it will 

 be a losiiiir concern. This is owing to their difi'er- 

 ent manao;ement: and as all liirmers love to have 

 some profit for their labor, I have arranged a iew 

 hints for the farmer, which you can dispose of as 

 you please. 



In the first place he carefiil to select a good breed 

 of hogs for your farm. There is more difference 

 in breeds of swine than most larmers seem to ima- 

 gine, or I am very certain the long nosed, long 

 shanked, forever restless animals that we so fre- 

 quentlj- see, would by common consent be banish- 

 ed from our farms and our pens. It is not saying 

 too much, that one third of the feed required for a 

 given quantity of pork is saved, when fed to the 

 China or Berkshire swine, or a cross of these 

 breeds, rather than the squalling skeletons that 

 disiirace the very name of porker. 



Do not delay fattening your pork till winter. 

 All animals take on fat much more readily in a 

 proper temperature; and with the hogs, this 

 should be warm rather than otherwise. The 

 greatest care will not make a hog as comfortable 

 in January as in October, and the fattening will 

 be in the same proportion. 



Z,et your hogs be kept as quiet as possible. 

 Some li:irmers adopt a mode of feeding, by which 

 what is gained in eating, is mostly lost in travel- 

 lin<x. Their peas or corn are fed to them from the 

 field, some half or three quarters of a mile from 

 the house; and the trough and pen to which they 

 come for the wash of the kitchen or the refuse of 

 the dairy being at the latter place, this distance 

 must be travelled over some (bur or six times a 

 day by the animal, to get his meals. This course 

 may make healthy hogs, but it is not the best way 

 to make fiit ones. 



Do not fear that cleanliness will injure your 

 hogs. To be kept in good health while fattening, 

 hogs should be permitted to come to the ground, 

 or a substitute provided; but the idea that to make 

 a hog liilten, he must be permitted daily to case 

 over his carcase in mud, is absurd. (Jive him in 



