1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



649 



a hog, the annua! amount paid, will be one hun- 

 dred and thirty five thousand dollars. How the 

 physical strength produced and sustained by eat- 

 ing all this pork is employed, I (a stranger,) do 

 not know; but il' your fellow citizens spend a pro- 

 portional sum in other things, I am afraid they are 

 in a lair way to eat oti their heads. Ol this sum, 

 a very small part is left by the drovers; they some- 

 times buy a negro or a stallion, but. by far the 

 greater part is carried back to furnish the means 

 to the country merchants, scattered throughout 

 the whole stock country, of making remittances to 

 the Atlantic cities. And 1 expect the notes are 

 returned to our banks at least as soon as they 

 wish to see them. Hogs that run at large can be 

 kept in growing order on a ear of corn a day; and 

 a quart of oats would certainly be equal to it. A 

 little less than eleven bushels and a half, then, will 

 give a year-old hog, weighing one hundred pounds 

 and worth six dollars when lat; and to do that will 

 require half a barrel of corn at the least, the va- 

 lue two dollars, which would make t!ie 100 lbs. of 

 pork cost about seven dollars. But Tilr. Editor, I 

 n«ver raised a hog in ray life, on such luxurious 

 living. From the 20th of May until my hogs are 

 brought to the pen, 1st November, I rarely feed 

 ihem once a week, so that for five months and a 

 half, feeding is out of the question. An acre of 

 clover will keep in good condition, say six or 

 eight hogs, until the first ol July, at which time 

 they begin to glean the harvest field. The 

 feed saved during the growing season will surely 

 fatten the hog, and 100 lbs. of pork will not cost 

 me six dollars. This 100 lbs. of pork, if raised by 

 one dealing in Petersburg, is spent on the spot 

 for something or other which he thinks necessary, 

 or his wife could not live anoihcr daxj without. 

 These hints can only be profitable to those who 

 live near uninclosed land and have dividing fences, 

 or those who have good standing pastures. Sup- 

 pose fifty thousand dollars of this outgoing had 

 been saved and divided among the community 

 trading with Petersburg annually, for the last lour 

 years, don't you think the benefit would be fell by 

 all classes? I hope some persons better informed 

 on this subject than I am, wi!| give us his thoughts. 

 I sail resume the consideration of this subject, 

 in a fliture number. J. P. Bolling. 



Amelia, Oct. 26, 1838. 



MANAGEMENT OF GRASS LANDS. 



(Concluded from page 636.) 

 2. Pasturage. 



Much of the land of this country has never been 

 cultivated, but produces without cultivation the 

 herbage plants peculiar to it; such are all our 

 mountain pastures, and the unimproved surfiice ol 

 the lower plains. 



It is an error to apply the term waste to lands of 

 uncultivated pastures. They are in no degree 

 waste, but are employed in producing the species 

 of Ibod which, in the circumstances in which they 

 are placed, may be the best which they are suited 

 to produce. It may be supposed ihat, by cultiva- 

 tion they will yield a more abundant produce, but 

 it is always a question ol' prudence, whether the 

 the profit in cultivating them will be greater than 

 that derived from them in their natural state. 



A primary improvement of which lands un- 

 VoL. VII-82 



suited to cultivation are suceptible, is freeing them 

 from stagnant water. This is for the most part to 

 be effected by aflbrding an outlet to the water in 

 channels cut in the most convenient places. This 

 should never be omitted where the land is of suf- 

 ficient value to repay the expenses ; and it is rare 

 when land is of sufficient fertility to produce the 

 grasses at all, that the expense of giving an outlet 

 to the surface water will not be repaid by the in- 

 creased value of the herbage-plants produced. 



A species of draining, which has been prac- 

 tised to a great extent in some of the mountain 

 districts of this counliy, is by means of narrow 

 drains, about a foot in depth, made by the spade 

 alone, carried along hollows, wherever the water 

 is likely to be interrupted. By this species of 

 draining, an important improvement, at no great 

 expense, has been effected in man)'- mountain 

 pastures ; and the tendency to rot, one of the most 

 fatal disorders to which sheep stock on wet land is 

 liable, lessened or removed. 



Another method of improving the natural pas- 

 tures of an elevated country is enclosing. In this 

 way the animals of a farm are confined to the pas- 

 tures which are suited to them, and permitted to 

 fijed undisturbed. And a great improvement of all 

 elevated pasture lands is shelter lor the stock ; and 

 judicious planting, accordingly, is one of the means 

 of increasing the value of exposed pastures. 



But land is not only left in grass in parts of the 

 country' incapable of cultivation, orin cases where 

 cultivation would not repay the charges incurred, 

 but much even of the better land is kept in grass, 

 when it is found that in that state it yields a more 

 safe and steady profit than ifcultivated. It is also, 

 in all cases, a renovation of the productive powers 

 of cultivated land to allow it to remainfora period 

 in grass ; and hence a large proportion otthe whole 

 country remains in that state. 



The animals that may be pastured in all lands 

 under grass are our diHerent kinds of herbivorous 

 stock. Cattle and horses require a large quantity, 

 and, though they prefer the finer grasses, are sat- 

 isfied with a coarser herbage than sheep. Hence, 

 a rule of the farm is, to put sheep on finer and 

 shorter grasses in preference to cattle and horses, 

 and cattle and horses upon the larger and ranker 

 pastures. 



Whatever be the animals that are turned out to 

 pasture, the rule is, that the pastures should never 

 be overstocked ; that is, that there shall always be 

 a sufficient quantity of food lor the animals. 



V/hen animals are kept in the fields during the 

 months of winter, they must of necessity remain 

 there till the herbage rises in spring. But when 

 thej^ are not kept throughout thewmterin the field 

 they are not usually put to the pastures in spring 

 till these are sufficiently advanced to receive them. 

 The usual period is April or May, when our vari- 

 ous animals are put in their respective pasture-fields 

 lor the summer. 



The benefits of freeing lands from injurious wet- 

 ness have been adverted to in the case of up- 

 land pastures. They are yet greater in the case 

 of the pastures of the the plains, inasmuch as the 

 the relative value of the land is greater. In this 

 case, not only should surlace-water be carried 

 away by ditches and open drains wherever neces- 

 sary, but under draining should be resorted to, to 

 free the land of wetness. By removing under- 

 water, a more valuable species of herbage is pro- 



