ESSEX SOCIETY. 89 



Danvers, Nov. 17, 1849. 



Dear Sir : — According to promise, I now send you the 

 result of my experiment of keeping Swine, the past season, for 

 the purpose of increasing the manmre heap, which is as follows, 

 viz : — 



On the 13th of April last, I bought ten pigs, and on the 23d, 

 five, making fifteen in all. Their average weight was 144 

 pounds, making 2,160 lbs., at 6 cents, . $129 60 



I fed them on dry corn and water principally ; /^ 



occasionally I gave then shorts and water, and 

 the waste from the house, which was a small 

 item, as we make butter only for family use. 



I gave them 220 bushels of corn, for which I 



paid, delivered, . . $130 00 



And 30 bushels of shorts at 23 cts., 6 90 



136 90 



$266 50 



I sold them in September, for 7 cents per pound, 

 the purchaser paying for killing. Commenced 

 killing them on the 19th September, but owing 

 to the warm weather, did not kill them all until 

 the 17th of October. The fifteen weighed when 

 dressed, 3,951 lbs., at 7 cts. per lb., . 276 57 



Profit, . . . . $ 10 07 



Now for the manure heap. I fenced off a yard adjoining my 

 barn, about eighteen by fifty feet, so constructed, that I could 

 drive in at one end and out at the other with a team, and 

 plough it, or cart in materials, as occasion required. I ploughed 

 up the soil in the yard, and when the hogs had made it rich, 

 and worked it up fine, I then covered the yard to the depth 

 or ten or twelve inches, with meadow mud, or peat. When this 

 was well incorporated with the soil and manure, and become 

 soft, I spread over it a quantity of coarse stable manure, and 

 when this became well mixed, added mud and manure, as be- 

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