FARMERS' REGIS TE it 



107 



the use of hay tea. The kinds of hay recomincnd- 

 ed were, ''clover, saiilbiii, and meadow hay." 

 I purchased a small qiiariiity of each, and com- 

 menced the experimcni. In Lhe outsel I used clover 

 alone. I ihen used lierdsgrass, but did not uese 

 any of the meadow hay. Instead of using clear 

 water, (as I had been used to do,) I mixed the 

 food with hay tea (made after the directions ad- 

 vised in the work above named,) and fed it out in 

 all respects as I had done |)reviously, indiscrimi- 

 nately to breeders, store hogs, shoats, |)igs and all. 

 The tea was made not simply by my direction, or 

 under my s-jpervision, but by my own hands. 



"It deserves particular attention," says Mr. 

 Saunders, " that in a week or Ibrlnight after I 

 commenced the experiment, the pigs improved in 

 their coats, which, from looking coarse, assumed a 

 gloss, and became fine and sliort, a proof, surely, 

 of the great nutrition of the (bod, and of its per- 

 fectly agreeing with the hogs," &c. 



It deserves particular attention, (say I,) that in 

 a week or Ibrtnight afier I commenced the experi- 

 ment, tlie pigs did not improve in their coa/s, or in 

 any wise whatsoever — " a proof, .s«reZj/,",ai least, 

 that " the great nutrition of the Ibod" exhibited it- 

 self rather difierently in the case of Mr. Saunders, 

 than it did in mine, as the sequel will show. 



From the first week after I commenced using 

 hay tea — breeders, shoals, and pigs — all began to 

 decline. My large sows were all with pig, and 

 some of them considerably advanced in pregnancy. 

 I took the usual precaution, and commenced phy- 

 sicking — still feeding them on Ibod mixed with hay 

 tea, however, (not suspecting evil then,) but, de- 

 spite ol'all my care, two of my Berkshires "popped 

 oti." Upon opening them, I Ibund the lower intes- 

 tines completely clogged, the lungs spotted and 

 inflamed, and upon the liver appeared small biles 

 or pustules. Still I did not charge it to the hay 

 tea, and still I fed them as belbre. My Chinese 

 sow, Ulue ^eWe, suddenly looked languid, and, (or 

 a meal or two, refused to eat. I changed her (bod 

 and mixed a dish of meal, well warmed, with a 

 portion of salts and sulphur, which I placed belbre 

 her. She would not eat. She was in the sixteenth 

 week of her pregnancy, and being very heavy, I 

 did not attem pi /orcni^ any thing down her throat, 

 lest I should kill heryoung, and thereby, probably, 

 lose the mother. I accordingly led her to herself, 

 in a dry, warm pen, lor the night, and in the 

 morning Ibund her dead. I opened her, and (bund 

 her lungs and liver afltjcled, as was the case with 

 the others, but j;ar/ifu/ar/(/ like those mentioned 

 belbre, with regard to the intestines — the latter 

 being, as it were, tied up intoknots — so badly clog- 

 ged as they were. Here was also a loss oi twelve 

 pigs, out of as fine a Berkshire boar as can be Ibund 

 in the state. Still, I did not attribute it to hay tea. 



Heretolbre, my hogs had been fed upon squash- 

 es, potatoes, and my refuse cabbages, beets, car- 

 rots, &c., togeiher with an occasional mixture ol 

 ruta baga and house offal, all of which was tho- 

 roughly boiled and mixed before being led to them. 

 These kinds of food having become exliausted, I 

 commenced more lately with ruta baga and sugar 

 beets, (an equal quantity of each,) boiled together, 

 mashed and mixed up with the hay tea — prepared 

 as before. A pair of fine sows, of the Berkshire 

 and Mocha breed, showed symptoms which led me 

 to lear that they weie to be the next victiu;s. — 

 1 physicked theiu thoroughly, but to no purpose j 



one died, the other 1 killed, tosaveits life — or rath- 

 er its pork. The choice Mackay sow I purchased 

 at your establishment last fall, next refused her 

 Ibod. She was exceedingly fat, and 1 gave her 

 the knife in season to prevent her dying of her own 

 accord. I wiil here remark that all of these were 

 affected precisely like those which died first, except 

 that in these last cases, the livers appeared very 

 much worse than did those of the first, being in 

 two cases completely covered.w\\h these liard, vis- 

 cous looking biles, wtiich must necessarily have de- 

 stroyed them in a day or too longer, had they been 

 left 10 themselves. 



A young boar, out of a fine grass sow in my 

 possession last summer, promised well, and I pur- 

 posed raising him, for his stock. At three months 

 and a half old he shared the same late with the 

 rest, from the same cause, if I could judge from the 

 symptoms exhibited during his sickness. It appear- 

 ed that, unilbrmly, the pigs died Vv^ithin forty-eight 

 hours alter the first signs of indisposition. In this 

 last case I had the boar placed alone, in a new 

 floored pen, where I could watch the effect of me- 

 dicine upon iiim. He would not swallow volun- 

 tarily, and I prepared a dose ol castor oil and sul- 

 phur, which I Ibrced down his throat at night. In 

 the morning I could find no proof that the physic 

 had operated, and accordingly I had him tied up 

 and poured about a gill of lamp oil down hie throat. 

 Alter waiting eight hours and finding it produced 

 no effect, but that he still declined and had become 

 rather stupid, I bled hiio in the feet, wliich for a 

 while revived him. Towards evening, as a last 

 resort, I attempted the use of mercury. Having 

 obtained four pills of ordinary size, I mashed them: 

 and tried to force them into his stomach ; it was 

 no go, however. We tied him up again, but he 

 appeared in great pain, and died belbre we could 

 get the last dose into his mouth. Upon examina- 

 tion, I found his intestines knotted as in the pre- 

 vious cases, and not a particle of the medicine 

 administered the day previous, had passed these 

 knots. 



'■'■Blind A^arjcy," my oldest and best breeding 

 sow, (originally (rom your establishment,) of the 

 Berkshire" Mackay and Mocha breed, gave me 

 eleven pigs on the 22d of Decen)ber last, ten of 

 which I found dead in her pen. Whether they 

 were born alive or not, I am unable to say, but I 

 am inclined to think they were not, as the last one 

 lived only about an hour after iis birth. Nine of 

 these pigs had been purchased by different gentle- 

 men in my neighborhood, at iglO each, "to arrive." 

 This animal being a very superior one, I felt anx- 

 ious to save, and of course spared no care or atten- 

 tion necessary to efliect it. I had the satisfaction 

 to find that she experienced very little apparent 

 inconvenience fi-om the loss of her fine brood, but, 

 on the contrary, did well after h^y accouchement, up- 

 on a slight allowance of dry food. In ten days af- 

 terward, I commenced leedmg her as be(bre, upon 

 vegetables mixed with liay tea. On the 11th of 

 the present month, she left her Ibod in the trough, 

 for the first timesmce I owned her, (being natural- 

 ly a very hearty (eeder,) and began to act suspi- 

 ciously. I iried physic again, but to no effect, 

 and fearing to run the risk, alter loosing so many, I 

 placed her most reluctantly in the hands of the 

 butcher. Her lungs were uncommonly ptirple, 

 and her lower intestines were in the same condition 

 as we had found the oiliers. 



