60 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



nearly as much to fatten them as the others. It 

 may be as well perhaps, for those who live in 

 towns and cities, and have a cow to eat the slops 

 &c. from their kitchen during the winter, to keep 

 an early spring pitjf and kill iiim in tliH fall, )br iheir 

 own use ; but (or the person who raises any thing 

 that will answer I'or food lor pigs during the winter, 

 and who wishes to carry pork to market, this course 

 will not be very judicious, as this kind of pork will 

 seldom bring so much in the market as older and 

 larger kinds. 



In regard to keep, 1 am wholly opposed to plant- 

 ing and hoeing Indian corn for our swine, even 

 to fatten them on ; especially since roofs of various 

 kinds, with less labor lo the acre and wiih an 

 amount of nutriment three or fourfold more, can 

 be produced among us. Earley is easily raised 

 without the aid of the hoe, and is an excellent food 

 to t'a'Aen swine upon. I consider it nearly as good 

 as Indian corn. Peas are better than either. 

 Advantage may be taken of them by having a 

 succession of crops. This can be effected by sow- 

 ing them at diHerent times in the spring of the 

 year. Let them mature sufficiently to be fit to 

 boil green, then prepare a portable fence so as to 

 enclose a certain space — into this turn the hogs 

 and thus move them from place to place as they 

 eat oti the crop. 



They will thus fatten so much as to need very 

 little more to make them excellent pork at killing 

 lime. No manure of any consequence may be 

 lost by this course, especially if your peas are upon 

 good arable land which may be turned over by the 

 plough in I he fall. A great saving in food may 

 also be effected by turning them out to pas- 

 ture. If you have a good clover ley, they may be 

 put into it about the 25th of May, and will" live very 

 well until your peas are fit to be eaten off. Be- 

 sides the food which they obtain, the exercise and 

 air is of great benefit to their limbs and health. 

 An orchard, even if not on arable soil, and which 

 cannot be ploughed, is an excellent situation for 

 them, especially if they can also have access to 

 good running water. Hogs will benefit an orchard 

 much. They stir and enrich the soil, destroy in- 

 sects, and render the trees more productive, while 

 the early wind-falls are thus converted to food 

 without much trouble. 



Among all the kinds of cheap fijod for swine 

 none are better or more economical than apples 

 gathered in the fall. If cooked and fed lo them 

 regularly, with a little meal, they will nearly fit 

 them fi)r the knile, and if a little corn meal, or meal 

 of barley or peas and oats be added, the work is 

 done. 



When in their pens, during the winter, they 

 should be fed twice per day, at given times and 

 at no other, with warm Ibod. fn longer days they 

 should be led three times per day, viz : at morning, 

 noon, and night. By being regular in the times 

 of feeding, they will not expect it at any other, and 

 will not be uneasy. Young pigs, -vhen taken 

 Ji-om the sow, should lor a short time be fi^d 

 regularly four or five limes per day, and gradually 

 taken off three times. 



Every man who keeps hogs should prepare his 

 piirgery for boiling or steaming food, and have 

 their food cooked and dealt out to them warm and 

 in exact quantities. Their swill should be occa- 

 sionally salted and a dose of sulphur mixed now 

 and tlien with it. Clmj-coal or rotten wood should 



also be allowed them to eat whenever they desire.* 



I liave recommended that their Ibod wiien feci 

 out to them should be cooked and warm, yet 1 

 have found by actual experiment that rula haga, 

 given to old breeders, raw, will keep them in very 

 good condition during the winter. I have also- 

 spoken of apples, many object to sour apples as 

 being improper food fbrswine, but this is a mistake. 

 It you bruise a sour apple you will find the taste 

 changed very much. Boiling or grinding changes 

 these apples or their juices so that they are as valu- 

 able as sweet ones and they are fbund to contain' 

 as much saccharine matter as some sweet ones. 



Pumpkins raised by themselves on good soil 

 make much more profitable and excellent food for 

 swine than many liave believed. 



I have no doubt that ripe pumpkins cooked and 

 properly fed to swine are worth as much, pound 

 lor pound, as potatoes. I never raise oats fbrswine. 

 They area |)oor, light, chatty grain. Their average 

 yield is about thirty bushels per acre, while barley 

 willtyield as much or more, and one bushel of it is 

 worth more than three of oats for hogs. They are of- 

 ten sown among peas to prevent the peas from lodg- 

 ing, but although you begin with but tew among 

 your peas, they will gain upon them, and in time 

 your peas and oats are nearly all oats, and in my 

 opinion poor keep Ibr swine. Some other substi- 

 tute to prevent the peas from lodging should he 

 used. Rye, for instance, is much belter, and the 

 crop when harvested far prefi^rable. 



Lodging or sleeping pens. There seems to be 

 loo much inattention to the comfort of swine as it 

 regards their lodging or sleeping comlbrtably. Al- 

 though in warm weather, hogs like lo wallow in' 

 the mire and filth, yet they like to sleep warm and 

 dry, especially in cold weather. When you com- 

 mence fattening them, which should be in Septem- 

 ber, give them a warm dry apartment to sleep in. 

 I would also recommend that they should be kept 

 in darkness. They will thus be less annoyed by 

 flies and kept from hunting after external objects 

 which will make them uneasy. 



JFeaning the pigs. If you have an abundance 

 of food for the sow, it will not be disadvantageous 

 or unprofilable lo let the pigs remain with her un- 

 til they are eight weeks old. The usual custom 

 however is to lake them off when four weeks old, 

 and they do very well if they can have milk fed 

 out to them for some time. Indeed they often do 

 well if taken from the dam at a lew days old, if 

 they can be well supplied vvilh warm milk from 

 the cow. Close attenlion should be paid lo them 

 while weaning, lest they become poor and their 

 digestive organs become deranged. It is hard 

 bringing them up to a good stale of health and 

 flesh when this has once taken place. 



Profits of pork-raising. I have no doubt that 

 pork-raising may be made the most profitable of 

 any stock or meal-raising business in the stale; 

 and I had almost said of'any other branch of hus- 

 bandry or fiitrming. Certain I am, that if the right 

 process be pursued any reasonable quantity of ic 

 may be raised, pound for pound, cheaper than beef. 

 Pork generally goes into the market at a year and 

 a half old, whereas cattle must be kepi much longer. 



A considerable profit may be made by salting 



* In cases of scouring, as young pigs will often, when 

 first taken from their dams, give them some liquor of 

 oak bark or dust from a bark mill mixed with their food. 



