respects its increase of bulk and the improvement of its nutri- 

 tive properties. Whether it would apply to those substances, 

 whose bulk is not increased by cooking, equally as to Indian 

 meal and the like, is a matter which experiments only can de- 

 termine. 



Such are some few trials in reference to the feeding and fat- 

 tening of swine, which I have made, or information of which 

 1 have obtained from other sources, which may at least lead 

 the inquisitive farmer to further experiments and inquiries, on a 

 subject of great importance to his interest. The inferences to 

 be made from them I shall leave to others. The results, as 

 will be observed, are not uniform. The thrift of animals must 

 depend on various other circumstances besides the kinds or the 

 quantity of food given them. Much depends on the breed, as 

 every farmer knows ; much on the health of the animal ; some- 

 thing on the season of the year. I failed in attempting to fat- 

 ten several swine in one case, though they were carefully at- 

 tended and various kinds of feed were tried, and the failure 

 was totally inexplicable until they were slaughtered, when the 

 intestines were found corroded with worms, resembling those 

 found in the human stomach, and this, I have no doubt, pre- 

 vented their thrift. The same fact has occurred in another in- 

 stance, and with the same result. I failed in attempting to fat- 

 ten some other swine, who had been driven a considerable dis- 

 tance and exposed, probably not even half fed on the road, to 

 severe cold and storms. Some of them were frost-bitten in their 

 limbs ; and though attended and fed in the most careful manner 

 they made no progress for months. In an experiment recently 

 made, of giving swine raw meal mixed with water, I have 

 found a falling off in their gain of nearly one half, compared 

 with giving their food cooked, such as boiled potatoes and car- 

 rots, mixed with meal while hot ; the result being, in a stye 

 containing a number of swine, as 279 to ,500. In respect to 

 confinement or freedom, various opinions are entertained. The 

 Shakers at Canterbury, N. H., deem it indispensable to the 

 thriving of their swine that they should have access to water 



