174 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



s w I :^r E . 



MIDDLESEX SOUTH. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



That the fattening of swine is a matter of vital interest to 

 dairy farming, every thoughtful farmer feels ; and that it pre- 

 sents some difficult and uncertain problems, both his experience 

 and his balance-sheet testify. Whether on the whole, the rear- 

 ing and fattening of his swine results in a direct profit or a loss ; 

 and whether the permanent advantage to his lands is more than 

 offset by his trouble and the low price he seems to realize for 

 his grain, are points he greatly desires to have cleared up. 



Some facts and considerations, to aid tlie farmer in deter- 

 mining these questions are herewith submitted. 



That, to keep up his farm and make it pay, his milk (the 

 cream excepted,) and grain or their equivalent as well as his 

 hay and vegetables, must he put back on the land, no observing 

 farmer doubts. And he soon ascertains that the equivalent is 

 not easy to find. He can easily find substitutes, but tliey are 

 not equivalents. He may spend his capital to buy specifics ; he 

 may sell his milk and buy grain ; with the aid of concentrated 

 stimulants he may raise roots, &c. ; but it is not precisely the 

 thing ; he fails to put back into tlie soil what he takes from it, 

 in the shape in ivhich the plant g-roivth demands it. As a shrewd 

 man once said, " Corn is the best judge of manure." Plants 

 have their demands in the elements of food, and also in the 

 peculiar condition and combination of these elements. They 

 relish what is according to their taste, and it gives a vigorous, 

 healthy growth. 



Feeding his milk and a generous portion of his grain to 

 swine, to be transformed into their kind of manure, is his 

 readiest means — and in the long run it will probably prove his 

 cheapest means — of getting precisely what his crops need : of 

 supplying the exhaustion which results from feeding milch 

 cows. Hog manure has the property of acting quickly from 

 the large per cent, of nitrogen it contains ; it is rich in phos- 

 phates ; and it is nearly as lasting in its effects as the manure 



