1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



251 



by the hands of his own famil)'-, and the product 

 in a great measure of their own flocks and fields ; 

 an estate which he can call his own with truth, 

 because it has been purchased not by fraudulent 

 speculation upon other people's earnings, but by 

 the healthful toil of his own muscles and the 

 sweat of his own brow ; luxuriant pastures filled 

 with those beneficent animals, who are nourished 

 by his kindness, and settle their bills in the most 

 honorable manner every night and morning ; and 

 a clean dairy room of ample dimensions and ex- 

 emplary neatness, with its numerous shelves, load- 

 ed with the richest produce, and speaking as well 

 for the in-door as the out-door management ; these 

 features combined in this picture, present one of 

 those beautiful examples of rural independence, 

 and the bountillil rewards, with which a kind pro- 

 vidence is pleased to crown industry, frugality, 

 and good management, with which I am happy 

 to say the county of Berkshire is every where 

 sprinkled over, even on its high mountain sum- 

 mits, as well as on its fertile alluvions, and in its 

 peaceful and secluded valleys. The independent 

 proprietor of this establishment is now sixty-six 

 years old. At the a<re of nineteen he was not the 

 owner of a dollar. He now admits himself worth 

 thirty thousand dollars ; and all this, with the ex- 

 ception of less than fifteen hundred dollars, is the 

 produce of his own farming industry, as he has 

 never been engaged in any speculation whatever. 

 A higher good than all this is found, in the fact, 

 which he added with an honest pride and an en- 

 viable pleasure, that he had brought up eight chil- 

 dren in tiabits of honest industry ; and not one of 

 them had ever disgraced his parents. 



The standard of dollars and cents is a very im- 

 perfect standard by which to measure the prospe- 

 rity of such a man. It is a prosperity which mo- 

 ney cannot purchase, and money cannot n)easure. 

 It is a prosperity flowing from deeper, purer, and 

 more enduring sources ; from a competency for 

 the evening of lile, earned by honest labor; a 

 mind unembarrassed by the tear of want, and the 

 vexatious caprices of trade and speculation ; and 

 a grateful sense of the kindness of ihat just and 

 beneficent providence, whose blessings have ren- 

 dered his peacelul and unpretending labors suc- 

 cessful. 



FEEDIA'G AND FATTENING SWINE. 

 AS FOOD. 



APPLES 



From Uie same. 



Of the swine of Berkshire county, there is little 

 remarkable. I met repeatedly with a breed called 

 the JMocho breed, which are much esteemed. I 

 have found them in difTerent parts of the state, 

 but I can obtain no account of their origin. The 

 Berkshire breed from England has been intro- 

 duced into the county, and will extend itself as 

 soon as its merits are properly appreciated. It is 

 the best hog that we have among us ; and when 

 used as a cross with some of our small boned 

 breed, such as the Byfield or the China, or the 

 Mocho, the progeny is highly approved. In a 

 cross with the grass breed, so common in New 

 .York, the produce is very fine. Beautiful sam- 

 ples of this cross have been produced on one of 

 the best managed farms in iMassachusetts, in Lex- 

 ington, near Boston. The average size, at eleven 

 and twelve months old, has been 300 to 350 lbs. ; 



and with extraordinary care and feed they have 

 been made to exceed 400 lbs. at ten months old. 

 This early ripeness, in all animals designed for the 

 butcher, is of great importance. 



On the dairy fiirms, the raising of pork is exten- 

 sively pursued, excepting where the whey itself is 

 used for the cows. The expediency of using the 

 whey for the cows, or, in preference, of keeping 

 swine, is a vexed question among the farmers, 

 which I have no means of determining. One 

 hog is usually kept to four cows. A shoat, weigh- 

 ing seventy pounds in the spring, kept upon the 

 slops of the dairy and pasturage, and some meal 

 or potatoes, or both, may be expected, in the fall, 

 to weigh 250 lbs. ; and the farmers in general con- 

 sider more than one hundred pounds of this pro- 

 duce as in justice to be credited to the four cows. 

 This, I believe, is in most cases an under-estimate. 

 No article can be given to swine, so conducive to 

 thrift as milk, or the slops of the dairy. 



One of the best establishments for latting swine 

 I found in Great Barrington. This farmer, wliose 

 whole management is excellent, fatted, the year 

 before the last, twenty-four large hogs. The cur- 

 rent year he has fatted twenty-five, and their ave- 

 rage weisht was 318 lbs. ; 'total 7,950 lbs. His 

 mode of fatting swine deserves attention. "Aa 

 soon as the pastures will aflbrd a good bite of 

 grass, he turns them in where they can have plenty 

 of clover and water. He is careful to salt them 

 once a week, or ofiener, if the season is wet; and 

 changes them from one pasture to another, as he 

 does sheep or other stock, which is of much im- 

 portance through the summer. As soon as he 

 gathers his harvest, he gives them the stubbles. 

 VV^hen these are well gleaned, he gives them cora 

 cut up by the ground for a few days as it is dan- 

 gerous to keep them closely shut up and feed them 

 highly in the beginning; .having no exercise, it 

 tends to produce the blind staggers. In order to 

 remedy this, they must be put upon thin feed and 

 have as much salt as they v.'ill eat. He commen- 

 ces steaming potatoes for his hogs the first of Oc- 

 tober, his rufa bagas not being then matured; he 

 mashes them fine; puts nothing with them but 

 the sour milk from six cows, and four quarts of 

 salt to a box of twenty-eight bushels. This feed 

 he continues three weeks. Afierwards, he com- 

 mences steaming ruta baga, and continues this 

 teed until the first of December, which is five 

 weeks. He puts with the ruta baga, alter being 

 mashed fine, four quarts of salt and three bushels 

 of oats and peas ground together, into a box con- 

 taining twenty-eight bushels. On this feed they 

 do extremely well. This feed he continues until 

 the 25th of December; and then finishes off with 

 meal and corn." The free use of salt is unques- 

 tionably of much advantage. 



A very successful fattener of swine in another 

 county, whose authority in this matter is decisive, 

 is in the habit of boiling corn in a large vessel, 

 and with the mixture putting in a ihw quarts of 

 wood ashes. The proportions, I cannot exactly 

 ascertain ; but he considers its use once a day of 

 great benefit to the health and appetite of his 

 swine. He is careful likewise to put charcoal into 

 their styes once a week. A finer slock of swine, or 

 a finer display of fattening swine. I have never seen 

 than I have seen at this farmer's place, which is 

 certainly a conclusive test of the excellence of his 

 managempnt. 



