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swine may l3e fatted to great advantage, when the price of pork 

 is 10 cents in the market and corn is one dollar per bnshel. This 

 is rather a loose estimate, and I should not quote it, but for my 

 great confidence in this farmer's long experience and careful 

 judgment. An excellent farmer in Conway puts up his hogs 

 to be fatted in August, and he greatly prefers pumpkins to po- 

 tatoes. There is no doubt that the pumpkin is a very nutri- 

 tious vegetable. A very large amount may be raised upon an 

 acre. The difficulty lies in their preservation ; but when they 

 can be used to advantage early in the season, they are a very 

 profitable crop. 



A farmer in Charlemont says, that, after twelve years' expe- 

 rience, he deems apples, bushel for bushel or pound for pound, 

 of equal value with potatoes for feeding swine. He prefers 

 sweet apples, but is not confident that they have any advantage 

 over sour apples. 



The raising of pigs is spoken of by several farmers as an ex- 

 cellent business. This can seldom be done to advantage unless 

 in connection with a dairy. A farmer of Deerfield sold the 

 pigs from two sows in one season for fifty-four dollars. An- 

 other in Gill sold the litters of two sows, in the spring, for fifty- 

 nine dollars seventy-five cents. These results are, to a great 

 extent, accidental ; and depend on so many contingencies that 

 no general rule can be drawn from them. A farmer in North- 

 field, on the 27th September, showed me three fine, thrifty 

 swine, about one year old, nine tenths of whose feed, since the 

 13th May, had been obtained from one eighth of an acre of clo- 

 ver, cut and given to them in a green state. 



XII. Horses. — The breeding of horses is not pursued to 

 any great extent in this county, nor indeed in any part of the 

 State. Farmers, who have a mare for farm or family use, will 

 occasionally take pains to get one or more colts from her, and 

 valuable stud-horses are found for the season in different parts 

 of the county ; but no expense is incurred and almost as little 

 pains are taken to improve the blood, or to breed and rear horses 



