FARMERS' REGISTER. 



61 



pork. Very lew are aware that pork increases 

 very much in weight by beinij saUed, but it has 

 been proved by experiment, tliat it will actually 

 gain in weight 15 or 20 per cent. This should be 

 generally known, that [leople may not be led to 

 sacrifice their pork when it is low in the market, 

 but salt it. The other parts of the hog, not usually 

 packed down, may be made into bacon, sausages, 

 &c. and then sold at a higher price than in the 

 " round hog.'' 



Calculation of profits. It maybe desirable to 

 have an abstract olihe expenses and profits ofpoik, 

 raising. This must vary, as every one knows, 

 according to the diH'erent locations as it regards 

 markets, as well as the different situations and 

 chances for feeding, &c. The following may be 

 given as a sample or general estimate. 



1st. We will suppose the pig comes in Sept. 

 and is slaughtered when 15 months old. We will 

 suppose that he has been kept upon barley meal 

 or potatoes. If kept upon barley 455 days (the 

 time of his life) at four quarts per day, he will 

 devour 56 bushels and a fraction, and suppose he 

 weighs 300 lbs. 56 bushels at 70 cents per bushel 

 is 39,20 



300 lbs. of pork at 7 cents is 21,00 



818,20 los^. 

 This allows the cost of tending &c. lo be paid by 

 his manure. 



2d. Suppose you keep him 455 days on potatoes 

 and he averages 1 peck per day he will eat during 

 his lile time 113 bushels, which at 16 cents per 

 bushel will be 8 18,08 



300 lbs. pork at 7 cents is 21,00 



2,92 gain. 



Thus you see that it becomes necessary to pur- 

 sue an economical system. To put into him all 

 such (bod as he will eat to advantage and which 

 will cost the least, and to make him also earn his 

 living, if possible, from the time he is able to root 

 until he is slaughtered. Suppose you take your 

 pig in September, He will, if you give him the 

 material to work upon, immediately commence 

 operations in manufacturing manure. Give him 

 apples, grass, weeds, potatoes &c. with a little 

 oat and pea or barley meal. Keep him growing 

 during the winter. I would suggest the idea of 

 having a plat of ground, say 1-4 or 1-2 an acre, 

 planted to artichokes. Peas and artichokes may 

 be planted together in drills in the spring. They 

 will grow tonrether — the peas gathered, and the 

 artichokes suffered to remain. Early in the spring 

 following turn your hotrs in and let them root 

 among tliem. This will keep them in part, until 

 the 25th of May, when your clover will be large 

 enough to be cropped by them. This will sustain 

 ihem almost wholly, until your peas are fit to be 

 eaten off, when they may be turned in upon them 

 and there fed until the grain crops are harvested, 

 and you are ready to begin the fattening process. 

 Then cook your apples, your rutabagas, pumpkins 

 &c. In this way a hog may be kept from weaning 

 time until he is fifteen months old, on most of our 

 farms, for 12 dollars. He will make you ten loads 

 of first rate manure, worth, after deducting ex- 

 penses of furnishing him with material, one dollar 

 per load, and the account current with him will stand 

 thus : — 



Porker, Dr. to board, &c. 15 months, $12,00 



Sundries, 



3,00 



i5,oa 



Cr. By 300 lbs. pork, at 7 cts. per lb. ^21 ,00 

 10 loads of manure at ^IjOO per load, 10,00 



831,00 

 Balance in favor of porker, 816,00 



Samuel Wood. 



MACHINE FOR HUSKING [oR SHUCKING] AND 

 SHELLING CORN. 



It is stated in the Maryland papers that a ma- 

 chine has been introduced for husking, or (as we 

 Tuckahoes say) shucking corn. A correspondent 

 of the American Farmer says that this machine 

 " which has excited much admiration on the East- 

 ern Shore of Maryland for two years past, was 

 invented and put in use by Mr. Hussey,the invent- 

 or of the reaping machine," of which statements 

 have been given in the Farmers' Register. The 

 same writer says that many farmers there, with 

 the former machine, have shucked and shelled 

 their corn "at the rate of 40 bushels of shelled 

 corn per hour; and of 100 bushels per hour of 

 corn previously husked." This, if correctly de- 

 scribed, must be a very curious as well as valua- 

 ble machine; and we are surprised that so little 

 progress has yet been made in extending informa- 

 tion concerning, as well as the use of, both those 

 machines of Mr. Hussey's. If he will bring 

 them and exhibit them in operation in lower Vir- 

 ginia, and they prove deserving of their recom- 

 mendations, he will find many purchasers. — Ed. 

 Far. Reg. 



DRAINAGE OF LANDS BY STEAM POWER. 



From tlie Durliain Advertiser. 



The drainage of land by steam power has been 

 extensively adopted in the fens of Lincolnshire, 

 Cambridgeshire, and Bedlbrdshire, and with im- 

 mense advantage. A steam engine of ten horse 

 power has been found to be sufficient to drain 

 a district comprising 1000 acres of land, and the 

 water can always be kept down to any given dis- 

 tance below the plants. If rain fall in excess, the 

 water is thrown of by the engine ; if the weather 

 is dry, the sluices can be opened and the v/aler 

 let in from the river. The engines are required 

 to work four months in the twelve, at intervals 

 varying with the season, where the districts are, 

 large; the expense of drainajre by steam power 

 is about 2s. 6d. per acre. The first cost of the 

 works varies with the different nature of the sub- 

 strata, but generally it amounts to 1/. per acre for 

 the machinery and buildings. An engine of forty 

 horsepower, with scoop wheels for draining, and 

 requisite buildings, costs about 4000/., and is ca- 

 pable of draining 4000 acres of land. In many 

 places in the fens, land has been purchased at 

 from IIZ. to 201. per acre, which has been so much 

 improved by drainage, as to be vVorlh from 60/. to' 

 70/. per acre. 



