THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



109 



may be fatted to great advantage, when the price 

 of pork is 10 cents in the market and corn is one 

 dollar per bushel. This is raiher a loose estimate, 

 and 1 should not quote it, but lor my great con- 

 fidence in this Carmers long experience and care- 

 ful judgment. An excellent farmer in Conway 

 puts up Ills hogs to be latied in August, and he 

 greatly prelers pumpkins to potatoes. There i.- 

 no doubt that the pumpkin is a very nutritious 

 vegetable. A very large amount may be raised 

 upon an acre. The difficulty lies m their pre- 

 eervalion; but when they can be used to advan- 

 tage early in the season, ihey are a very profita- 

 ble crop. 



A farmer in Charlemont says, that, after twelve 

 years' experience, he deems apples, bushel lor 

 bushel or pound lor pound, of equal value with 

 potatoes lor leeding swine. lie prelers sweet ap- 

 ples, but is not confident that they have any ad- 

 vantage over sour apples. 



The raising of pigs is spoken of by several 

 farmers as an excellent business. This can sel- 

 dom be done to advantage unless in connexion 

 with a dairy. A larmer of Deerfield sold the 

 pigs from two sows in one season lor filty-four 

 dollars. Another in Gill sold the litters of two 

 sows, in the spring, for fifty-nine dollars seventy- 

 five cents. These results are, to a great extent, 

 accidental ; and depend on so many contingencies 

 fhat no general rule can be drawn Irom them. A 

 farmer in Northfield, on the 27th September, 

 showed me three fine, thrifty swine, about one 

 year old, nine tenths of whose feed, since the 

 13th May, had been obtained from one eighth 

 of an acre of clover, cut and given to them in a 

 green state. 



SHEEP-KILLING DOGS, 



From the Kentucky Farmer. 



We noted, lately, that a petition had been 

 laid belbre the House of Representatives, pray- 

 ing a tax on dogs, with the view of diminishing 

 the destruction of sheep. The Commilee on 

 Propositions and Grievances, to whom the peti- 

 tion was referred, have asked and obtained a dis- 

 charge from the consideration of the subject ; 

 and as the petition was drawn by the Editor of 

 this paper, leave has been obtained to withdraw 

 it, for the purpose of printing it, as will be seen 

 below. We drevv up and offered the petition un- 

 der a sense of duty ; for our editorial position has 

 furnished us facilities for learning that the farm- 

 era of the country sufier an enormous evil in 

 the sheep-destroying propensities of dogs. We 

 have received numerous letters and had countless 

 verbal statements, from every quarter, of the loss 

 annually sustained in this way ; and we believed a 

 due regard to an important interest of the state 

 would have prompted the legislature to inter- 

 pose some effectual remedy. The facts stated in 

 the petition, we believe, are substantially true ; 

 the principles of the proposed law, in our judg- 

 ment, are plainly defensible ; and we deem the 

 neglect of the legislature to protect the country 

 from the evils incident to the enormous grievance 

 complained of, a gross dereliction of duty. If a 

 thousand tigers were transported from the jun- 

 gles of Bengal and turned loose in the land to ra- 

 vage and destroy the domestic animals, the proprie- 



ty of making an organized effort, under legal 

 sanction, for Uieir destruction, could be defended 

 hy no arguments not applicable to that of destroy- 

 ing the superfluous roving dogs which swarm 

 thoughoui the land. 



We are well aware that there is always at- 

 tempted to be got up an odium acninst any one se- 

 riously moving a remedy ag.uiist i his evil ; and we 

 knew an instance of a most worthy man in a neigh- 

 boring county, almost losing his election to the le- 

 irislature lor signing a petition on this very subject. 

 Every species of opposiiion is offered to any 

 movement of the sort. The good-natured crack 

 jokes and provoke laughter and lun ; the ill-natur- 

 ed swear most lugubriou-ly ; and there is another 

 class, a sub-genus of political demagogues, who 

 rave about " rights'''' and " liberty,^' hut have no 

 respect for the rights of others. But never a 

 one condescends to favor with an argument against 

 the justice, the policy, the expediency or necess- 

 ity of an appropriate remedy for the intolerable 

 evil.— ^rf. Ky. Far.'] * * * # 



Peiiiion of Tho. B. Stevenson, praying a tax 

 on dogs. 



The undersigned, holding a position which 

 affords him many facilities for collecting informa- 

 tion on the subject of this petition, is enabled 

 to speak knowingly of an intolerable grievance 

 suflTered by a large number of the farmers of this 

 Commonwealth and to which all are in danger of 

 being subjected ; and he conceives it his duty re- 

 spectfully to present the subject to the General 

 Assembly, praying such relief as it is in the power 

 of legislation to grant. 



The grievance complained of is the destruc- 

 tion of sheep by dogs. The undersigned has 

 had much conversation with gentlemen Irom eve- 

 ry quarter of the state, and he finds this griev- 

 ance generally complained of. He believes 

 that an annual loss of not less than one hundred 

 thousand dollars is sustained by the country un- 

 der this grievance. There is scarce a neighbor- 

 hood in which farmers are not sufferers. Nor ia 

 the actual lose occasioned by the killing, wound- 

 ing and scattering of flocks of sheep by dogs all 

 that the country sustains in this matter. The 

 business of wool-growing cannot be extended, 

 without great if not entire risk, while the pre- 

 sent evil remains. The undersigned perlectly 

 well knows that, but for this oppressive griev- 

 ance, flocks of sheep would be found grazing on 

 the hill lands of the state, so well adapted for 

 the raising of sheep, which are now lying idle 

 and unproductive, because the owners fear ta 

 risk their flocks to the ravenous propensities of 

 roving dogs. To say nothing of the intrinsic 

 justice of removing this grievance, there is, in 

 the present ( ondition of our industrial interests, 

 nothing more desirable and important than the 

 extension of our means of production, and a 

 change, to some extent, of our agricultural sta- 

 ples. These are few branches of industry of 

 equal importance with the wool business ; and it3 

 extension in Kentucky is demanded by every 

 consideration of economy and regard for our do- 

 mestic interests. And if we could extend our 

 means of producing wool, the extension of our 

 manufacturing interests would be as great aa 

 that of the agricultural. Our hill lands, now 

 lying desolate and waste, can he made to bus- 



