282 



FARMERS' REGISTER— MANURE FROM HOGS. 



yet ascertained that these worms can retain their 

 reviviscent quality. 



That this disease is contagious, is sufliciently 

 proved by the fact, that it can at pleasure be suc- 

 cessfully inoculated on the soundest seed-corn. 

 The infection, however, is not so generally nor so 

 readily communicated as the diseases occasioned 

 by the fungi of the smut-balls or dust-brand, a few 

 inlected ears of Avhich are capable of contamina- 

 ting and infecting the whole contents of a barn. 

 Grains infected '-vith these worms having no em- 

 bryos, cannot vegetate and produce again diseased 

 grains tliemselves, but can only communicate the 

 mfection by coming in contact with the germina- 

 ting seed-com in the soil, by the moisture of 

 which the wom^s are re\ived and extricate them- 

 selves, which I have so oilei:t observed they do 

 when kept some time in water. 



Steeping the seed-com in lime-water, in the 

 same manner as advised for preventing the dis- 

 eases occasioned by the fungi, is the most effica- 

 cious method of preventing the spreading of this 

 disecise. I have repeated the experiment by inoc- 

 ulating, very strongly, sound Avheat-grains with 

 the worms, and afterwards steeping them in lime- 

 water, and the infection was always [jrevented; I 

 have also steeped some sound wheat-grains in 

 lime-water, and after having kept them in a dry 

 etate ibr some days, I inoculated them strongly 

 with the worms, but on examining the plants, not 

 one instance of infection occurred. From tlaese 

 facts it is evident, that ])roperly steeping the seed- 

 corn in lime-water before sowing, is a sure pre- 

 ventive of the disease occasioned by grain-worms. 



MANURE FROM HOGS. 



From the Northern Farmer. 



One of the regular mean,? which every farmer 

 possesses, for the increasing of his stock of ma- 

 nure, and which is by no means the least valuable, 

 is by many totally neglected. It is that of making 

 their hogs serviceable in this business. Upon this 

 point, I can speak from past experience, both in 

 respect to the loss from neglect and the advantages 

 derived from these valuable animals, when em- 

 ployed for this purpose. It was my practice, till 

 within the last fifteen years, to permit my swine 

 to roam at large in the highway, in the summer 

 season; or what was but little better, confine them 

 m a pasture, lor three or four months during the 

 warmest of the season; carrying whatever I might 

 have to gi\-e them as fted, to the place in which 

 they were confined. I began, however, after a 

 Avhile, to consider this course of turning hogs to 

 pasture, or permitting them to run in the highway, 

 to be altogether wrong. Upon mature reflection, 

 I concluded that by confining them in a close yard, 

 and furnishing them with the materials for making 

 manure, the profits would be amply sufficient, not 

 only to repay me for all the trouble of furnishing 

 the materials, but Avould also enable me to give 

 them better keeping; and, in this respect, my an- 

 ticipations have been luliy realized. One error, 

 however, I committed in the outset, and I have 

 noticed the same fault in others. It was this: my 

 yard Avas at first made at least three times too 

 large, embracing about two and a half rods of 

 ground, for three or four hogs, the number Avhich 



I generally keep; and I have seen yards including 

 a much larger s])ace made by some farmers, for an 

 equal number of hogs. Now this, where the ob- 

 ject is the making and saving manure, is, in my 

 judgement, wrong; fbr^ in so large a space, the 

 quantity of materials jnit into the yard must be 

 very great, or it must lie very thin over the yard; 

 in either case, the benefit received from three or 

 (bur hogs is but small; at least I found it so, where 

 the materials, of whatever nature they might be, 

 were put in one season and carried out the spring 

 following. I therefore diminished my yard to 

 twenty feet by fourteen, about one-third of its ori- 

 ginal dimensions; and I find this space to be suffi- 

 ciently large for four hogs; and, I believe, large 

 enough for even six to make manure to advantage; 

 ibr in this space, materials suflkient fbr twenty or 

 twenty-five loads of manure may be deposited in 

 the course of one season; and what to me seems 

 of the first importance in this business, is the hogs 

 are kept continually on the materials, except when 

 in their house, fbr the purpose of eating and sleep- 

 ing. 



My method of supplying these materials is the 

 following: after having cleared their yard at the 

 season of planting, I put into it such portions of 

 straw as I may have left on hand after the season 

 of foddering is past; and if I have not a sufficient 

 quantity of this, to furnish the necessary supply 

 till vegetable substances attain to a sufficienl 

 growth to be profitably collected, I put in earth col- 

 lected from the low pla,ces, by the side of the high- 

 way; though this I more generally place in or near 

 my barnyard, 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 ob- 

 tainable, when in a green state; as I consider 

 green vegetable substances, fbr this purpose, far 

 more valuable than dry. Potato tops when pulled 

 fbr early use, before they become dry and shrivel- 

 led, I consider equal if not superior to any other 

 green substances fbr this purpose. Pea-vines I 

 usually put into my hog yard, edter the peas are 

 thrashed off; and if some are put in before being 

 thrashed, they are as gratefully received by the 

 inmates of the yard. Buck-wheat straw I have 

 made use of, but I deem this to be of all substances 

 the least valuable for the purpose of making ma- 

 nure, when it has ripened into a dry state, however 

 valuable it may be when ploughed under in a 

 green state, as it unquestionably is; being at that 

 stage of its growth one of the most juicy plants of 

 the vegetable kingdom. 



I add nothing by way of materials to my hog 

 yard, after the first of September, at which time! 

 generally commence feeding, for the purpose of 

 fattening; and by the middle or twentieth of De- 

 cennber, my usual time fbr killing my hogs, I make 

 from four to five loads of manure to each hog so 

 kej)t, superior to the summer dung, obtained by 

 yarding my cows. And the quantity made by 

 my hogs is for each one double to that made by 

 each cow for the same period of time. 



Thus I have endeavored to present to the rea- 

 ders of the Farmer my method of adding to my 

 stock of manure by the aidof my hogs from fifteen 

 to twenty loads annually: whereas, I used former- 

 ly, as too many do at the present day, who call 

 themselves farmers, entirely to neglect all these 

 advantages, the improvement of which is so es- 



