456 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



or particles that will not dissolve. It is salted to suit the taste, which should be 

 adapted to the market lor which it is intended ; it is then placed in the refriger- 

 ator and kept cool until it is taken out, worked on an inclined table, packed in 

 new tubs containing 25 lbs. each, and sent to market, which is done every week, 

 always using ice in every situation required. 



You will be best able to judge of the value of the offal, milk and buttermilk 

 for hoa: feed, when I state that I have sold pigs, pork and lard to the amount of 

 $1,063 09, at an expense of $1611 for purchase money of pigs and feed other than 

 milk ; and that my hogs have made, of the feed and materials given them, 

 near three hundred half-cord loads of manure, the value of iihich every farmer 

 ought to know. 1 make about 200 loads from my teams and cows, which I sup- 

 pose to be about one-third less in value than tlje manure made from hogs. 



I hire two men through the year, say ^130 each, and one for eight months, 

 l$90 ; consume about 2,000 lbs. of meat per year in a family of 10 persons. 



The calves I send to market (except those for my own cows) are bought in 

 the neighborhood, at 4 or 5 weeks of age, and usually sell at 44 to 5 cents per 

 lb. for carcass, and 9 cents for skin. Expenses on each one about $;1. 



The eight pigs you allude to were killed very early in the season (first week 

 in November). They weighed 270 lbs. average. Killed 59 hogs, average weight 

 290 lbs. ; average price 5 4SI-100 cents per lb. 



I have tried an experiment in the construction of blind ditches, or under-drains, 

 since I saw you, which resulted satisfactorily. In a field of 9 acres, very level, 

 and lying at the base of a hill, I have been very much troubled (whenever I have 

 plowed it) with surface v/ater, which has some seasons destroyed the crop. I 

 suppose the difl[iculty lay in a very tenacious subsoil, which retained the water 

 (that ran from the hill) near the surface. I slaked out a line for a ditch 30 rods 

 long, took one pair of horses, a common plow, (a subsoil-plow would be much 

 better after the first furrows,) and four men, and commenced ; turned up the 

 sward the first two furrows, and removed it a little one side ; then went down 

 with the plow, so guiding it as to produce the required slant or slope to the sides 

 of the ditch, and at every furrow throwing out the dirt. The moment that we 

 had penetrated far enough into the subsoil to drain the adjoining surface, the 

 quantity of water that rushed out was perfectly astonishing, and satisfied me 

 that my plan was a correct one. Give me 4 good horses, Avith proper tools and 

 men, and I can dig any quantity of drains 2^ feet deep for I25 cents per rod. 



I think you will be weary after perusing a rambling epistle of such length. 



Respectfully your liioud, B. F. HALL. 



Great Destruction of Noxious Animals — Birds and Beasts. — Could any one sup- 

 pose that in an old country, as France, in the last six years, in tlie forests of the Crown 

 alone, there have been destroyed by guns and traps, noxious animals — birds and beasts — as 

 thus: wolves 53 ; she-wolves 22; young wolves 13; foxes 5,42 1 ; badgers 213; pole-cats 

 3,C59 ; American pole-cats 3,050 ; dogs 1,5.97 ; cats 7,784 ; weasels and hedge-hogs 34,452 ; 

 buzzards 4,478 ; hawks 7,451 ; cats-/(?<a«/'.'! 10,170 ; crows 18, 4GG ; magpies 21,450 ; jack- 

 daws 19,479; squirrels 6,030 ; rats and mice 10,822— total 154,517. So it is stated iu the 

 Journal of Agiiculture. 



To Disinfect Dairy Vessels of all Noxious Odors — A valuable Recipe in a few 

 words. — Every dairy sliould have a vessel of lime-waler setting in it, say half-gallon of lime 

 to ten or twelve gallons of water, simply to rinse everything in. The vessel can be filled up 

 as often as you please. It will be sure to remove all acidity or bad odor. Let daiiywomeu 

 remember this. 



Excrements. — In Flanders the collected excrements of a man for one year are valued at 

 £1 178. A pound of urine contains all the ingredients necessiu-y for the production of a 

 iKJund of wheat. 

 (936) 



