THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



67 



der it the best grazing graea that I have ever seen. 



Wheat sown out of season. — I sowed in my 

 garden a peck of ihe Baltimore bearded wheat, 

 about the first of April. There were a few indif- 

 ferent heads in July or August. I let it remain. 

 It lived over the whole summer, which was dry, 

 and I cut it the next 4 h of July, as good wheat 

 as you ever saw, but not so thick. 



Prince IFilliam, Fa. K. Fostku. 



COMMENTS ON ARTICLKS ON BERICSHIUE 

 HOGS. 



To tlie Editor of tlie Farmers' Register. 



I have thus far stood aloof from the contro- 

 versy, which has been going on between the 

 breeders of the different kinds of hogs, which they 

 are anxious to put off upon the public. Perhaps 

 1 ought to pursue the same course still. But 

 there are certain communications in your last 

 (January) number, which 1 think ought not to be 

 passed over without comment. And here let me 

 assure your readers, that I do not undertake this 

 thing in the spirit of controversy. I shall take 

 sides with neither party. JVly sole object is to 

 correct certain mis-statements or mistakes, if you 

 choose, which, in my opinion, are calculated to 

 mislead the public. 



On p. 30, a writer, whose signature is R, S. B., 

 uses the broad assertion, " that the Berkshires 

 are not what they are cracked up to be." Atid 

 in proof goes on to assert, "I have a neighbor 

 who has given them a fair trial, to which 1 have 

 been an eye-witness. The experiment was made 

 in this way: — two Berkshires were placed in a 

 stable with two of the common breed, all of '.he 

 same age, and were carefully fed, and at the end 

 of nine months were killed, and the result was, 

 that the common breed exceeded the Beikshires 

 in weight, one fifty and the other sixty pounds." 

 Here it must be admitted, is a very formidable 

 assertion. But without intending to impeach 

 R. S. B's. candor, 1 must say that the trial was 

 by no means " a lair one." Every one must have 

 observed the difference in thrill of hogs of pre- 

 cisely the same breed. And even in the same 

 litter of pigs, there is often the most striking dif- 

 ference, some growing off rapidly, whilst others 

 are puny and weak and not worth raising. Now, 

 in the present instance, all that we are told is, 

 that the hogs were equal in numbers, equal in 

 age, led the same length of time and on the same 

 food, and that at slaughtering the common hog 

 greatly exceeded the Berkshire in weight. Now, 

 without calling one of these lacls in question, 

 allow me to inquire, may not the increased 

 weight of the com.mon hag be accounted lor, on 

 some other principle than his superiority"? Per- 

 haps he may have been more healthy, and there- 

 fore more hearty ; perhaps the Berkshires were 

 stinted when young, a misfortune from which 

 they never recover ; or I can conceive twenty 

 otheT perhaps es on which I can account lor the dif- 

 ference. But I have already alluded to a litter 

 of pigs, in which there is no difference in breed, 

 but still a great difiiirence in thrift. Now, when 

 R. S. B. will account lor this difference, I will do 

 the same in his case. 



But K. S. B. presents another formidable ob- 

 jection to the Berkshires. " They are not pro- 



lific : a gentleman of my acquaintance had four 

 sows, each of which had but one pig, being a loss 

 of at least ten per cent, a head, and the generali- 

 ty of them, I believe, do not get more than four 

 or five." This objection, I confess, somewhat 

 surprises me. I really know not what to make 

 of it. The Berkshires have hitherto be^n con- 

 sidered as remarkable for their prolific qualities, 

 and my own observation has confirmed the fact. 

 One of my boars got on a neighbor's bow four- 

 teen pigs, on another nineteen, and on a third, 

 twenty-two. And in my own case, my sows 

 breeding fiom this and another boar, have so 

 many pigs, that I am constantly subjected to the 

 painful necessity of killing them, to prevent worse 

 consequences. I have always thought a bet a 

 very poor expedient to establish any fact. It 

 only proves the sincerity and confidence of the 

 party. And as this is what I have principally in 

 view, 1 hereby offer R. S. B. not a bet but a 

 barter, that lor every Berkshire bow, young or 

 old, he can find having but one pig, I will find 

 twenty that have five or more ; and for every full 

 grown sow, that has only five, I will find fifty that 

 have ten or more. 



There is another communication in your last 

 number, p. 12, signed Boiling Jones, which I think 

 requires some notice, not that it contains any 

 mis-statements or even mistakes, but because it 

 makes a representation which is calculated to 

 discourage the raising of pork among us. This 

 gentleman's hogs, it seems, cost him $22.42^ 

 when the same amount of pork might have been 

 bought lor ^14.96. Here is evidently a great 

 loss. But let me inquire, in ray turn, what line 

 of business, in all or any of the pursuits of life, 

 is at all times exempt from losses? Would it 

 be considered as wise in the merchant, the me- 

 chanic, the manufacturer, or any other person, to 

 abandon a pursuit usually profitable, simply be- 

 cause he had met with a loss? On this plan all 

 trades and pursuits would be subjected to fluctua- 

 tions and chanses, which would eventually destroy 

 the whole. The fact is that the last pork season 

 was a very unusual one. 1 cannot call to mind 

 the time when pork was so cheap. A variety 

 of concurrent causes served to depress this ar- 

 ticle to a degree never known before. If Mr. 

 Jones could have bought it last year for $4, he 

 knows that the usual price in his county has 

 been ^6 and sometimes more. If therefore pork 

 had continued at its customary price, a price 

 which it will in all probability recover again, 

 there would have been no loss even in his case. 

 And here let me remark, that the sure and direct 

 mode to raise the price of pork, is to do just as 

 this gentleman has done: abandon the raising 

 of it himself, and discourage it as far as he can 

 in others also. If this state of things become 

 general, we shall soon be without hogs of our 

 own, and then the Kentuckian will charge ua 

 just what he pleases for his. 



But Mr. Jones, according to his own showing, 

 has subjected himself to full twice the expense 

 that there was any need for in raising his hogs. 

 His hogs, it seems, in 15 months and 5 days, 

 " each ate 37 bushels 1^ peck of corn." Now I 

 affirm, and that too upon actual trials, amounting 

 to many hundreds, that 11 bushels of corn, with 

 such other food as every farm will produce, is 

 pufBctPnt to keep a hog in good thrift (or the first 



