69B 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



No. 11 



with meal added for a tew of the last weeks of 

 feeding to give the requisite firmness. On apples 

 or potatoes, particularly il'steamed, as they always 

 should be, pigs thrive very rapidly, and will in 

 time acquire a very good consistence of fiesli as 

 well as weight ; but they must be fed (or a longer 

 period than when meal is used. Barley has also 

 been extensively cultivaied lor making pcvk, ns a 

 substitute for corn and peas, and grown lor the 

 same purpose by many farmer.-;. Some of the 

 heaviest, finest lots of pork we have ever seen, 

 were made from peas simply prepared by swelling 

 them in tubs with water, and lijeding them with 

 milk. As a general rule it may be staled that all 

 food for animals, certainly lor fattening ones, 

 ehould be cooked. In order to thrive rapidly, and 

 take on fat as a hog should, to render making pork 

 profitable, the nntritive matter should be presented 

 in a way that will require little or no expenditure 

 of animal or viial power for its appropriation. 

 The following statement will exhibit at a glance 

 the advantages ofso preparing food. " Mr. Wal- 

 ker of Ferrygate, on the 4!,h of JMarch put up two 

 lots containing five pigs each of the same brood, 

 and two and a half months old. They were se- 

 parately fed, the one on steamed and the other on 

 raw potatoes, with an allowance of two and a half 

 lbs. of broken barley daily to each lot ; the barley 

 for the steamed lot being prepared alons; with the 

 potatoes. The live weight of the two lots were — 

 That on raw food, lOS 



That on steamed Ibod, 106 



and the following table exhibits their several im- 

 provement: 



March 19, pigs on stpamed ^ difference in fa- 



tbod, 114 Ibf 

 " " raw " 111 

 March 30, weight on 



steamed (bod 137 lbs 

 " " raw " 123i- 

 May 1. weight on 



steamed (bod, 205 



u « u raw " 175 



June 1, weight on 



" " steamed food, 279 



" " •' raw " 223 



vor of steamed 

 food 3 lbs. 



do. 13.1 



do. 30 



do. 56 



Thus in three months the pigs on steamed fiiod 

 had increased 172 lbs. — being 67 lbs. more than 

 double their original weight while tho.se on 

 raw food only gained 115 pounds. In another 

 instance, two lots were fed on steamed, and on 

 raw potatoes, and in ten weeks the lot fed on 

 steamed food gained 38 stones 6 lbs. and the lot 

 on raw potatoes, 17 stones 11 lbs. making a dilier- 

 nce in favor of the steamed Ibod of 360 pounds. 



Our experience is also decidedly in lavor of 

 steaming or cooking food f^r swine; but it should 

 not be forgotten, that in order to make profitable 

 perk for cooking, it is indispensable that pigs fed 

 on apples or potatoes should have meal mixed 

 with their food ; the quantity to be inerea.sedasthe 

 feeding approaches its close. With this precaution 

 the general introduction of the plan of fattening 

 fswine on steamed apples, or apples and potatoes, 

 or either alone, is one of the greatest improvements 

 of modern firming, adding materially to the pro- 

 fits of the cultivator of the soil, and furnishing a 

 ftrst rate article for the market. 



'•JOTTINGS DOWN IIV THE SWAMPS. 



Ey the Editor. 



No. I. 



Blackwater and Chowan rivers, and the mouths 

 of the Roanoke. 



I'lymouih, N. C. Nov. 19, 1839. 



The singular features of the upper Blackwater 

 liver, or swaaip as it is called above the limit of 

 navigation, have long ago attracted my attention; 

 and more than once I have attempted to induce 

 the landholders on its borders, and the public, to 

 appreciate its neglected capabililies for improve- 

 ment, both for naviiiation, and for the drainage of 

 the extensive swamp lands on the upper waters.* 

 But it was not until yesterday that I had an op- 

 portunity of seeing its now navigable course, and 

 of finding that as remarkable though different fea- 

 tures belong to its lower as its upper waters. Even 

 to this lime, almost no u.se is made of this excel- 

 lent navigable route, except b\' the small steam- 

 boat which runs regularly from the junction of the 

 river with the Portsmouth and Roanoke railway, 

 to Edenton and Plymouth ; and this vessel car- 

 ries little except passengers. That almost no use 

 should be made of this river and also of the Notto- 

 way and Meherrin, for transporting country pro- 

 duce, is owing to the almost closed state of the 

 lower waters and ports of North Carolina, and the 

 consequent low prices which can be there given 

 by merchants. 



The Blackwater, from its head spring, which is 

 within two miles ol' the lowest (ttHs of the Appo- 

 mattox, is remarkable for its level and sluggish 

 course. It has not a rock, and perhaps not a peb- 

 ble, in the whole of its long route; and nothing 

 obstructs the passage of its waters, except fallen 

 trees, and the rubbish which has collected above 

 such stoppages. These obstructions have long 

 a<ro choked up the upper waters for many miles 

 below the head ; and have raised the general level 

 of the water, and kept the extensive swamp cover- 

 ed with the impeded water until dried by evapora- 

 tion ; and the acts, as well as the neglect, of the 

 proprietors have been continually operating to ren- 

 der the stream as useless as possible, and to ren- 

 der the swamps irreclaimable, (under our stupid 

 legal policy,) and unproductive of every thing but 

 malana, sickness, and death. If the law of Vir- 

 ginia had not (effectually though indirectly) for- 

 bidden the draining of the swamps of the Black- 

 water, it might have been done, and 20,000 acres 

 of the richest soil have been made dry and pro- 

 ductive, by an expenditure of less money than has 

 been paid in physicians' bills, for the sickness 

 caused by these swamps, and the worthless mill- 

 ponds at the heads of the branches. But this is 

 digressing from my present subject. 



At the steamboat landing, and for some miles 

 lower down, the width of this river is sometimes 

 not more than 70, and seldom is 100 feet wide, and 

 this narrow space between the shores is still more 

 lessened by the overhanging branches of the trees 

 which grow thickly on the borders. Then so 

 crooked is the course, and abrupt the turns, and so 

 much are the changes of course shut in and con- 

 cealed by the sameness of appearance on both 

 sides, that the river presents continually the ap- 



* Farmers' Register, p. 532, vol. iv. 



