44 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



food, but kept in a healihy, growing condition, till 

 within 4 or 6 montha of the fin:ie of killing, when 

 they were tied as high as ihe oihere. They were 

 all slaughtered at the same time, being ihen 16 

 months old. At the age of 9 monlhs the full-fed 

 pigs were much the heavieei, but at the time ol 

 killing, the pigs led sparingly, for the first 10 or 12 

 monlhs, weigned, upon an average, filiy pounds 

 each more than the others. Besides this addi- 

 tional weight oCpork, the three " lean kine'"' added 

 ranch more than the others to my manure heap. 

 These resulis would seem very obvious to any nrie 

 who has noiiced the habits of the animal, fn 

 consequence of short f(:eding, ihey were much 

 more active and industrious in the manufacture of 

 compost, and this activity at the i^ame lime caused 

 the muscles to enlarge find the frame to spread, 

 while the very fat pigs became inactive, and like 

 indolent bipeds, ihey neither worked for their own 

 benefit nor lor that of others. 



"For the purpose of increasing my manure 

 heap, my pens are kept constantly supplied with 

 peat or swamp mud, about three hundred loads 

 of which are annually thrown into my stiff. 

 This, v?iih the manure from my horse stable, 

 which is daily thrown in, and the weeds and 

 coarse herbage which are gathered from the farm, 

 give me about 500 cart loads of manure in a year. 



" On regular and systematic feeding and clean 

 and dry bedding, the success of raising and fat- 

 tening swine very much depends. A faithful 

 feeder, also, who has some skill and taste and 

 withal a little pride of voca'ion, is indispensable." 



Of all articles ever given to fatting swine In- 

 dian tneal is, without doubt, the most nutritious. 

 Mr. Phinney, it seems, has by actual trial settled 

 a much vexed question, whether hogs should be 

 forced by full feeding when young, or at first be 

 only kept well in a g^rowing stale. He found it 

 belter, when designed to be kept more than a 

 year, to let the young animal, by sufficient but 

 not excessive feeding, have time to develope him- 

 self and acquire a natural size, rather than, by 

 filling him to repletion, to bring on a premaiure 

 state of fatness, which seemed to check Ihe 

 growth. To young pigs, milk, whey and butter- 

 milk are the best of all feed ; but where cows are 

 kept for the purpose of supplying the market with 

 milk, the piga will be of course regarded as very 

 poor customers. "The milkman will not call." 

 There is however, as 1 have shown before, 

 under some circumstances, a mistake in this 

 matter. 



The establishment of J. P. Gushing, Water- 

 town, for keeping and fatting swine, is upon a 

 large scale, and is exceedingly well contrived for 

 his situation. It consists of a long one-story 

 building, with separate pens on one side extendmg 

 the whole length, each designed for four swine, 

 with an open yard and a lodging and eating room 

 to each besides some lying-in apartments.* A 

 commodious passage-way runs the whole length 

 o( it, with the troughs projecting into the passage- 

 way, and a shutter for the troughs so contrived 



* The length of this building, including the cook= 

 ing-place, is 252 feet, width 12 feet, and height the 

 same. There are twenty pens, each 12 feet by 8, and 

 a yard of 12 feet attached to each pen. The number 

 of hogs that can be accommodated depends upon their 

 sizes— from three to six, say an average of four of 300 

 weight each. There were fatted flfty-two hogs last 

 season, weighing, dressed, 15,573 lbs. 



that the trough is easily cleaned at any lime, and 

 the food of the hogs is placed before them with- 

 out adtnitting that which, in the usual slovenly 

 mode of feeding, is but too common, an uncivil 

 interference on their part before all is ready. Some 

 contrivance as offeciual as this for another class of 

 animals would be quite useful at some of our pub- 

 lic hoitid and steamboat?, and save us from the 

 severe remarks of those foreign travellers who 

 have little sympathy with our customary despatch 

 of business, and seem to look upon us as a nation 

 of fire-eaters. 



The cooking apparatus is at one end. Had 

 economy of room and ease of feeding been stu- 

 died, the building might have been double the 

 width, with pens on each side. In England, they 

 are sometimes made circular with the cooking 

 apparatus in iho centre and the feeding troughs 

 all within the circle; but in such cases there must 

 be much waste of room. JNlr. Cushing's barracka 

 are lengthwise of his catde-yard, so that the ma- 

 nure from Ihe pens of his swine is thrown imme- 

 diately into the yard, and any litter or muck easi- 

 ly supplied in the same way. His store hogs, 

 too, at pleasure may be turned into ihe catlle-yard 

 with the advice given in -^sop's fable by the 

 dying father to his sons, " that there is a treasure 

 buried in the field which ihey would find by ' 

 digging for it." The swine however do not much 

 need the advice. They are natural philosophers 

 and go by instinct into deep investigations. Some 

 of them should always be kept in barn-yards and 

 cellars. They are of great use in turning up and 

 mixing the manure ; and in yards where cattle 

 are fed upon grain, and the sweepings of ihe 

 barn floors are thrown out, they take care that 

 nothing is lost. I have known a considerable 

 number of store hogs kept in a thrifty condition 

 upon that only which they obtained in a yard 

 where a proportional number of beef cattle were 

 stall-fed. The philosophy of reciprocal uses, 

 which is apparent in every department of nature, 

 though it frequently presents itself in a form of- 

 fensive to a fastidious taste, is to a reflecting mind 

 always instructive on the wonderful economy of 

 the divine providence. 



A very large hog establishment in ihis county 

 is to be found in West Cambridge on the farm of 

 Abner Pierce. He keeps in his enclosure about 

 500 hogs. They are supported upon the city 

 svvill or refuse. No hogs are allowed to be kept 

 in Boston but by special and extraordinary per- 

 mission ; and among the excellent municipal re- 

 gulations, ihe refuse vegetables, meat, garbage, 

 and oHal of the houses are required to be kept by 

 each householder in a box or barrel which is emp- 

 tied once a week or oftener by the city scavengers. 

 This, being taken into the covered city cans, is 

 delivered at Mr. Pierce's establishment, about 

 five miles from the city, dailj' — he paying there- 

 for to the city 4000 dollars per year on a contract 

 for five years. 



His hogs, when I visited him, were in an en- 

 closure of about fourteen acres, partly covered 

 with trees and bordering on one of the beautiful 

 ponds in that vicinity, a picturesque situation 

 most certainly, for animals making such humble 

 pretensions to taste and sentiment. If nothing 

 else, however, in the summer monlhs they enjoy, 

 as much as their belters, the luxury of a refresh- 

 ing bath and quiet repose under the shade, both 

 essentially conducive to their health and thrift. 



