68 



THE FARMERS' RilGISTER 



12 months of his life, and ihen to Calten him in 

 the bargain. And ihis I say, not from the, report 

 of a servant, but, being my own hog-herd, I know 

 it to be a fact. This subject has already been 

 presented in detail by me, and publislied in the 

 Octobernumberofihe Souihern Plamer, to which I 

 refer Mr. Jones and all otherd who niny be curi- 

 ous about it. I would just lemark, tliat his grea; 

 error seems to be that he had corn, and scarcely 

 any thing else for Ills hogs, and hence his great 

 expense in rearing them. 



But, Mr. Editor, before I leave this subject, I 

 have a word to say to yoii, and this in fact was 

 my chief reason for taking up my pen at this 

 time. At the end of Mr. Mahard's communica- 

 tion, page 17, you have appended a note, in which 

 you seem to discourage the strenuous efforts which 

 are now in progress to improve our stock. I say 

 aeem, for I cannot believe that a man who has 

 done so much for the improvement of the soil as 

 you have, would designedly throw one single ob- 

 struction in the way of improving our slock. In 

 this note " humbug, humbugging, humbug Ibr- 

 ever, deception" and such like, frequently occur, 

 as connected with this subject. Now, although 

 I am free to admit with you, that many imposi- 

 tions have been practised in this matter, yet I am 

 by no means prepared to concede that all is hum- 

 bug and deception. I believe that among those 

 who have imported fine animals, wiih the view 

 of propagating and selling them, are many as 

 honest, as high-minded, and as much above the 

 meanness of deception, ae any class of men what- 

 ever. I will even go lurther, and siy, that these 

 United States owe to these men a debt of grati- 

 tude, which they will find it very difficult to ex- 

 tinguish. These, I doubt not, are your sentiments 

 as much as they are mine. Why, then, allow me 

 to ask, cast ridicule upon a whole, class of men, 

 when comparatively few deserve it? But, sir, im- 

 provements are certainly in progress, and no re- 

 presentations of humbuggery, by implication or 

 in any other way, can possibly arrest them. Men 

 will see for themselves, and when the fact is ob- 

 vious, they will not allow it to be controverted. 

 When I was a boy, iTiy father had the good 

 judgment and kindness to require me to hold 

 the handles of the plough. But after I com- 

 menced ray little education, I knew nothing prac- 

 tically of this implement for about 20 years. At 

 the expiration of tliis period, it was my good for- 

 tune to return to the plough again. I only re- 

 gret that I did not return much earlier. But 

 when I came to my old acquaintance, 1 was lite- 

 rally astonished at the improvement which had 

 been efi'ected in il. Instead of that little unsteady 

 thing which merely scratched the surface, I found 

 a solid implement, which took a firm hold on the 

 soil, and completely inverted the sod. With this 

 practical evidence before my eyes, and in my 

 hands, could I doubt that an improvement had 

 taken place in the plough. In the same man- 

 ner, some years ago our hogs were a long-snout- 

 ed, lank-sided, long-legged, ugly beast, requiring 

 two or three years to get their growth, and a poor 

 affair even then. Now I see an animal compact 

 in form, having a large proportion of body, 

 with leg just enough to take the necessary exer- 

 cise, but not enough to fit it for mischief, and 

 giving me more meat, and better meat, in 12 or 

 18 months, than the old hog did in twice that 



lime. And shall I not call this an improvement'^ 

 You, sir, in your zeal to prevent improsition, may 

 call this humbuggery ; but I call it solid improve- 

 ment. 



Notwithstanding what I have said, I cheerful- 

 ly acknowledge that the public hae been sadlj' 

 gulled on this put>ject. I doubt not that in some 

 instances, when Brother Jonaihan was hard run 

 for a genuine pig, and strongly tempted by the 

 S10 jingling in his hearing, he was prevailed on, 

 just this one time,\o send a [low] grade pig. In other 

 instances, when there has been honesty enough 

 to send the genuine, the inferior have been se- 

 lected (or this purpose, whilst the best have been 

 kept at home. These are the cases, sir, which 

 you so justly and severely reprehend. But in the 

 rnidsl of all these spurious coins, there is certainly 

 some genuine racial ; and this is all that is con- 

 tended for by your humble servant, 



J. 11. TURKKR. 



QUERtES IN REGARD TO PREVALENT DIS- 

 EASES PRODUCED BV LOCAL CAUSES. 



The following queries were drawn up at first 

 for the consideration of the Board of Agriculture. 

 But I hey were not offered by the writer, because 

 he- deemed it injudicious, at the outset, that the 

 subjects of inquiry should be more extensive 

 than those actually adopted by the Board. But 

 (here is no subject, not strictly belonging to prac- 

 tical husbandry, which has a closer relation to the 

 interests of agriculturists, through a large part of 

 Virginia, than the investigation of the sources of 

 malaria, and its effects, and, by ascertaining facts, 

 to discover any means for the prevention or mitiga- 

 tion of this scourge and destroyer. To invite at- 

 tention to the investigation, and the furnishing of 

 accurately observed facts, these queries are here 

 submitted in their original form, to serve merely 

 as suggestions. Nearly all men of observation 

 and experience who reside in lower and middle 

 Virginia, though knowing nothing of medical 

 science, have by observation learned facts which 

 would throw some light on this dark subject; and 

 still more could be done by country physicians 

 possessing also equal means for observation. Any 

 accurate facts furnished on this sul'ject we would 

 gladly publish ; and whether lew or many, they 

 will, according to their extent, form useful mate- 

 rials for future and more extended labors of the 

 Board of Agriculture. We have long been con- 

 vinced, and have staled the grounds of the con- 

 viction, that much of the production of the baleful 

 eflfecis of malaria may be prevented by a proper 

 system of agriculture, aided and enforced by legis- 

 lative enactments and strict police ; and that such 

 a system would be profitable of itself directly, and 

 ten-fold more profitable indirectly, as serving to 



