1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



159 



delivering them to the General, he sold them. 

 The first that came into Massachusetts were sent 

 by Gen. Ridgly oCPennsylvania, to Col. Pickering 

 of Salem, who has taken great pains to preserve 

 the breed pure, and introduce them among the far- 

 mers of that state. Mr. John Reed of Roxhury, 

 obtained them from Col. Pickering, and Mr. Fiske 

 of Worcester, had them from Mr. Reed. In 

 1835 Mr. Sandford Howard, who then lived in 

 Hallowell, purchased a sow and I purchased 

 a boar from Mr. Rowland Howard of Easton, 

 Mass. who had them from Oliver Fisk. All the 

 hands through which they passed, Irom their first 

 introduction into this country until they were 

 brought to this town, are careliil breeders of pure 

 stock, and much pains has been taken to preserve 

 this breed pure, and avoid breeding in-and-in. 

 That is, propogating offspring among the same 

 litter. No reasonable doubt can therefore exist 

 but that the breed was introduced into this state 

 in its purity. 



Since I have had them, I have found them to 

 fully sustain the reputation given to them by the 

 breeders in Massachusetts. They are very small 

 boned, in proportion to the size'. Quiet, easily 

 fatted, do much better on raw ibod than any oiher 

 kind, and obtain a good size at an early age. 



I have crossed the pure Bedford with the ^ 

 Bedford and half Macky, making the progeny 

 5 Bedford and -\ Macky, but Ibund very little ad- 

 vantage from the crossing. One of these pigs 

 1 wintered last winter on 8 lbs. of raw mandrel 

 wurtzels per day, and she kept in good condition, 

 and brought a litter of 10 pigs in April, a few 

 weeks previous to which, I fed her on the slops 

 from the house. Nine of the pigs lived, and made 

 fine hogs. During the summer she lived princi- 

 pally on grass with a lew raw potatoes, and in Octo- 

 ber she had another litter of 13 pigs, four of which, 

 however, owin^ to an accident, died. She was 

 then kept on boiled pumpkins, oats and peas, and 

 barley-meal. Since then, she has lived entirely on 

 raw ruta baga and mangel wurtzels, at the rate of 

 about 12 pounds per day with an opportunity to 

 burrow on the manure heap, and is now in good 

 condition. 



1 killed one of the pigs which was | Bedford 

 and I Mackay, when nine months old, that weigh- 

 ed 302 pounds. He was fed on the slops fromlhe 

 house, during the summer, and the last two months 

 was fed on meal and corn. When I first com- 

 menced feeding him on meal he ate about two 

 quarts per day, but after 5 or 6 weeks he would 

 not eat more than one quart. He gave the most 

 meat in proportion to the bones, of any hog I ever 

 killed, and I think was the cheapest raised. "blhers 

 who keep this breed have made the same state- 

 ment. There was one of the pure Bedford breed 

 killed in the neishborhood 14 months old, that 

 weighed 385 and another 18 months old, that 

 weighed 420 lbs. neither of which had any extra 

 keeping. 



Between the 20lh of March and last of May 

 I shall have 14 litters of pigs, two of which will 

 •^^ 7^ pure Bedford, and two will be | Bedford 

 and ^Mackay, with which I can supply any per- 

 sons who may be in want. 



Any persons who are desirous of examininrr 

 this breed of hogs can do so by calling at my larn^ 

 about 2^ miles from Hallowell Vilaje. 



„„ „ ^, J- WiivGATE Haines. 



Hallowell, Feb. 13, 1839. 



From tlie London Gardeners' Magazine. 

 WEEDS AS MANURE, AND VARIOUS REMARKS. 



Sir, — From reading the review of Cruikshank'a 

 Practical Planter in your vol. p. 448, I am led to 

 make a few straggling observations. The system I 

 advocate is equally applicable to horticulture as to 

 agriculture. Cruikshank says, as quoted by the re- 

 view, (p. 453,) " It may seem a very paradoxical 

 fact, but it is nevertheless true, that wood, instead 

 of impoverishing the ground on which it is pro- 

 duced, nourishes it." (To be sure it does.) "There 

 is very little of our waste land, that if trenched or 

 ploughed will carry even a moderate crop of grain, 

 unless it receive a considerable quantity of .ma- 

 nure. After bearing timber, however, the contra- 

 ry 13 found to be true." So the old vague, un- 

 pliilosophical, unmeaning, foolish theory of rest is 

 demolished at last, or ralherexplained. His sub- 

 sequent reasoning is bad. Farther on, (p. 454,) 

 he says, "That the soil should be enriched by the 

 production of wood, when the experience of aires 

 has proved that it is always exhausted by other 

 crops, will seem to them a paradox of the most 

 extravagant kind." By this statement it does. 

 But other crops are carried ofi' annually by man 

 or beast, root and branch. This I shall explain. 

 Cruikshank's theory is not confined to wood ; it 

 includes all vegetation. This is a truth as palpa- 

 ble to every one, when pointed out, as the rotun- 

 dity of this globe, or the simple act of Columbus' 

 making the egg stand on end ; yet it is no less la- 

 mented than true, that notwithstanding all the 

 splendid talent which has been exhibited, from 

 Tull to the present day, this very obvious fact 

 should not have been lonu ajro adopted as a fixed 

 and leading principle in all agricultural and horti- 

 cultural operations. It stares us in the face in the 

 forests and prairies of this country, the pampas of 

 Buenos Ayres, the dirty summer fallows of Eng- 

 land, and every where and in every thino-. The 



principle of a clean naked fallow (fortunately a rare 

 occurrence,; is utter annihilation. Had farmers and 

 gardeners been able to eradicate weeds as they are 

 called, the soil would have been a caput mortuuni 

 long ago. But weeds— like the principles of liber- 

 ty— destroy, hack, hew, and persecute as we may 

 rise again in due time, not to injure, but to ferfal- 

 ize and benefit. We must follow nature ; all other 

 guides are fatal ignesfatuL " He that made the 

 earth gave it laws that 'tis not good to break," 

 After much steady observation, thought and prac- 

 tice, for some years past, I am perfectly convinc- 

 ed that all applications, no matter how laro-e, of 

 animal manures, animal substances, and minerals 

 are comparatively nugatory, without profuse sup- 

 plies of vegetables and their roots ; and I am not 

 sure that an occasional liberal dressing of wheat 

 flour, Indian corn-meal, &c. would not be the most 

 profitable manure of all. Lions and tigers prey 

 on flesh; and the vegetable monarchs of our forests 

 attain their highest majesty on vegetable food, and 

 in due time, return again to the soil, to produce in- 

 creased fertility. This is very obvious on the bank.? 

 of the Ohio and Mississippi; and vast masses too, 

 of drift wood are carried into the ocean every flood! 

 Does all this timber grow and die to no purpose ? 

 What is the man's religion who says it does ? 



The second extract from Cruikshanks is by no 

 means a correct statement. If wood-lands were 

 kept clean, and all theleavcs and dead branches car- 



