1838J 



FARM i:US' R EG I ST i: 11. 



607 



his pen daily a handful of weeds or vei^jetables 

 with their roots, or when these cannot be had, a 

 6Ui)|)ly of fine charcoal with a little flonr of sul- 

 phur once a week, and you need not fear keeping 

 his exterior too clean and sleek. 



Never feed a hog on unground or uncooked food. 

 Farmers" diminish their profits more perhaps by a 

 netflect of this rule, than any other. Grain led 

 to animals whole, is much of if lost to the purpose 

 of nutrition, as the process of nias;ication renders 

 but a small part of it sutliciently fine for the juice 

 of the stomach to act upon advanta<reousIy. The 

 more eft'ectualiy hard (Train can be pulverized, the 

 better, and when divided in this way as much as 

 possible, cookincror boiling should be added to ren- 

 der the process as perfect as possible. Allow me 

 to ask the farmer, who sneers at the idea of making 

 his corn into pudding for his hogs, what his tiimi- 

 ly would say were he to order a quart of meal and 

 ii lit'le water to be dealt out to them, instead of al- 

 lowintT its conversion into suitable and nutritious 

 fiiod by boiling. Our efibrt in flattening animals 

 should' be, to relieve nature fr-om ail unneces- 

 sary labor, and this is most effectually done by 

 grindinir or cookincj. 



Feed hogs at a time no more than they will eat. 

 We are apt to consider swine as not very particu 



ridiculed. I allude to what is sonietiniee, in deri- 

 sion, termed hook fanning, but which in reality 

 offers the most substiiniial fitcilities to improve- 

 ment, and the acciuisition of wealth. Let us in- 

 quire what ibis book firming is. 



A German, by means of study and observation, 

 aided by a lonii' course of practical experience in 

 husbandry, has been able to ascertain the ilegrce- 

 of exhaustion in fertility, which soils ordinarily un- 

 deriTo, fi'om the growth of conmion grain crois — 

 and how much their fertility is increased by given 

 quantities of manure, and by pasture — thusteach- 

 inir how to maintain, or to increase, the fertility of 

 the soil, anci consequently its products and its 

 profits, from the resources of the farm. 



Other men have been assiduously engaged, for' 

 years, in studying, and have satisiiictorily ascer- 

 tained, the laws by which heat, air and water, are 

 made to exert their best agency in preparing the_ 

 food, and acceleraiin!.r the growth and maturity of 

 plants— and have published directions how lu de- 

 rive the highest advantage from these primary 

 agents of nutrition. 



And others have invented new and improved 

 implements and machinery, calculated to relieve 

 acrricultural labor of half its toils. 



A farmer in Ohio, raises fifteen hundred bushels 



lap in matters of taste; but a well fed porker is oc- 1 of Swedish turnips on an acre of ground, enougti 



to feed and fatten ten bullocks seventy-hve days. 

 A farmer in Massachusetts, by a new mode oi 

 managing his corn crop, has realized a nett profit 

 of 8 150, on little more than an acre of land, while 

 his neiolibors, in the same season, and in adjoin- 

 ing fields, have not been remunerated, in rheiu 

 crop, for the expense of culture. A farme2 im 

 New- York, has proved by experiment, that by a' 

 tiew process of making hay, he can save ten per 

 cent m weight, something in labor, and other ten' 

 per cent in the qualify of his forage. Another' 

 fiirmer of my acquaintance, has cultivated twenty 

 acres of Indian corn, and eight acres of beans the- 

 present season;— the former, estimated to average 

 forty bushels the acre, and the latter giving more' 

 than an ordinary yield— without enqiloying a 

 plough, or a hand hoe, in the planting or culture— 

 the whole work having been performed ■\vith the 

 drill barrow and cultivator, implements of modern 

 introduction, thus economizing from one-halt to 

 two-thirds of the labor ordinarily bestowed. 



These are all matters of recent record, but as 

 Ihev happen to be printed, they very properly fall 

 under the denomination of book fanning. _ But 

 are they, on this account, less true, or is the infor- 

 mation they contain less useful in your practice? 

 If a neighbor makes a palpable im|)rovement, by 

 which he doubles the value of his labor, you read- 

 ily avail yourselves of his discovery, though you 

 do it by stealth. Through the means of agricul- 

 tural publications, the entire farming community 

 stand in the relation to you of neighbors— you be- 

 come acquainted with all their improvements, and 

 are enabled to profit by their skill and science. I 

 might detain you fbrfioiirs with details of improve- 

 ments in husbandry, which are essential and ac- 

 cessible to the farmer. Hundreds of men of pro- 

 found science, and thousands of the best practical 

 farmers, in ihis and other countries, are engaged 

 in improving agriculture — in making two, three 

 and lour blades of grass, and two, three and four 

 bushels of grain grow, where but one blade, or one 

 bushel, grew before; and they are tendering you 



casionally very fastidious in his food, and nothing 

 at such times disgusts a swine sooner than to have 

 his trough too deeply replenished. They should 

 have enough at all times, however, and enough in 

 fattening pork, means just as much as the hogs 

 will eat. 



Reserve your best and sweetest food for the last. 

 If vou use. as most farmers do — and without it, 

 making pork would be a dead loss to the fiirmer, 

 at the prices corn and other grain has borne for 

 some years past — apples or potatoes for feeding 

 hogs, let them be given for the purpose of bring- 

 ing them forward, and the filling up and finishing 

 of the process be done with the corn or peas they 

 are to receive. Apples will make as sweet pork 

 as any feed in the world; but neither these, or po- 

 tatoes, will give pork of the hardness and consis- 

 tency of that made from sound corn, and of course 

 where any of this is to be fed, it should be reserv- 

 ed to the time when its good effects will be most 

 sensibly felt. 



Experience has convinced me, that by following 

 these few and simple directions, more pork, and of 

 a much better quality, can be made from a given 

 amount of food, than is now usually done; and 

 when it is recollected that at the rate of only 50 lbs. 

 to an individual — a small allowance — one hun- 

 dred millions of pounds are required in this state, 

 it will be seen that a saving of twenty per cent, in 

 the feeding, or an increase of that amount in the 

 product, amounts to a sum handsome in itself, and 

 worthy of the notice of the producer as well as the 

 consumer. 



An Old Farmkr. 



BOOK-FARM IMG. 



Extract from Judge Buel's Address to tlie Berlvf-liiro Agricul- 

 tural Society. 



Allow me to take a farther disgression, to speak 

 of a means of improving our husbandry, which is 

 too much neglected, and loo often contemned and 



