734 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 12 



population, wealth, and importance, none is more 

 prominenl than the utter neglect; of this primary 

 pursuit. It cannot be doubted that South CaroH- 

 na once pseseseed a Foil of unsurpassed fertility. 

 But this rich jrift of a kind Providence has been, 

 in a great measure, lost, by a most pernicious 

 course of'husbandry. A large portion ofthisonce 

 flourishing region, blessed, too, with a propitious 

 climate, has been reduced to sterility. Yet, all 

 hope of reclaiming and restoring to its wonted 

 productiveness, our exhausted soil, is not in vain. 

 It is a beneficent provision of a good Providence, 

 thai beneath the surface of the earth are to be 

 found substances of the most fertilizing qualities. 

 Their discovery, however, requires the application 

 ofscience, and means seldom possed by individuals. 

 It is in such a case, that a wise and patriotic le- 

 gislature should extend its aid. But to subserve 

 fully the interest of agriculture, the legislature 

 should not confine its operations to a jr^ological 

 surve}' alone. With this should be connected an 

 agricultural survey. While the (bnner would 

 bring us acquainted with all the substances which 

 enter into the composition of that portion of the 

 earth to which we can have access, the latter will 

 elicit a mass of information in relation to every 

 thing that concerns agriculture, which cannot fail 

 to be highly useful. In other countries, the utility 

 of agricultural surveys has been fully proved, by 

 the valuable results. But, in carrying into elfecl 

 puch surveys as have been mentioned, the value 

 of the results would depend upon the selection of 

 an individual possessing the hiffhest qualifications, 

 combining a profound knnwledire of ihe subjects of 

 investigation, a sound discriminating judgment, 

 and an untiring zeal and industr3\ The expense 

 of such a project, should not be weighed against 

 the incalculable importance of the end proposed. 

 Being deeply impressed with the practical useful- 

 ness of such surveys, I earnestly recommend that 

 you provide for their accomplishment. 



AN EXTENSIVE PIGGERY. 



From tlie Farmers Montlily Visiter. 



We visited one establishment near the Spy 

 pond in West Cambrige which will be thought 

 remarkable; it was on ground very near the pre- 

 cise spot wliere, in company with a grandmother 

 and some elder female cousins, at the early age ol 

 five or six years, all of us got lost and wandered 

 in terror late in the afiernoon, in a swamp of the 

 high blue-berry bushes. It is now a place lor 

 hogs, where no less than nine hundred of these 

 animals, from the smallest size to the lusty two- 

 year-old weighing eight hundred to a thousand 

 pounds, are kept. And how will the reader sup- 

 pose so many devourers could be sustained pent 

 up in a pen of not more than one or two acres, 

 without starving '? It is in this wise : — Some five 

 or six years ago the proprietor of this hog esta- 

 blishment engaged to pay the municipaliiy of the 

 city of Boston twenty-five hundred dollars a year 

 for the delivery on tfie spot of the oflal collected 

 from the kitchens of the several families in the 

 city who had not other means of disposing of it. 

 This ofi'al was (tjd out daily to as many swine as 

 it would keep. The first contract of two or more 

 years turned out to be of great profit to the pro- 



prietor. A pebbnd contract was made, and the 

 sum was advanced to thirty-five hundrecl dollars a 

 year, and the proprietor is taxed a further sum of 

 about five hundred dollars a year for tolls, as he is 

 compelled to pass out of the city over Cragie's roll 

 bridge, the town authorities of Charlestovvn not 

 permitting the ofi'ensive matter to be brought over 

 the Warren free bridge, which leads directly 

 through the compact nr city part of the town. 

 With the increased expense, the proprietor has 

 made his thousands every year. The feeding is 

 said to be equal to the rearing of one thousand 

 hogs in a year, weiifhing three hundred pounds 

 each. The hogs are taken from this feed and fed 

 on corn a few days before they are slaughtered for 

 the market, so that the most astute pork eaters can- 

 not possibly distingui.-h between the meat of these 

 and the best Itimily-kept hogs of the country. 

 If the keeping was all the cost, at the high price of 

 ten cents the pound, which has been the low- 

 est price for pork in the market, the income 

 would be thirty thousand dollars a year. The 

 price of pork, now reduced as it is to six cents 

 the pound, will still furnish a grand profit to ihe 

 owner of the West Cambridge piggery. 



The profit on the hogs is not the only gain of the 

 establishment. The manure here made has had 

 the effect to double the value of the land all 

 around it, to the distance of half a mile or a mile. 

 Six large wagon loads of offal, containing, with 

 much that is offensive, much of the best living of 

 the luxurious livers of Boston; remnants of roast 

 turkeys, roast beet" and plum-puddings, with now 

 and then a silver spoon and fork, are daily brought 

 to the piggery. They are spread at three differ- 

 ent times in the day over a large plank plallbrm 

 on which the animals feed. Six farmers of the 

 town contract daily at the price oi" two dollars and 

 a half per day lor the leavings upon the platform, 

 each taking his turn on a different day of the 

 week (Sundays excepted) in filling a large wag- 

 on such as every considerable farmer owns, and 

 appropriates almost exclusively for transporting his 

 cord of manure wherever he can find it. The 

 pine plains supplied with this manure — the steril 

 ground that formerly produced li'tle or nothing — 

 yields such crops of rich garden vegetables as no 

 one previously acquainted with them ever dream- 

 ed he should there see grow. 



Among the practical operators on the land in 

 West Cambridge, without asking of them we 

 take the liberty to use a few names, not because 

 others may not be their equals, but because they 

 happen to have (alien more particularly under our 

 observation at the time of our recent visit. 



PENNSYLVANIA FARMING. 



For tlie Farmers' Register. 



In the months of August and September, I was 

 several weeks in Pennsylvania, and passed through 

 several counties, east of the north mountain ; hav- 

 ing no speculation in view, either in lands, or mul- 

 berries, I was studious in examining the character 

 of the soil, and the course and method of their 

 cultivation. The lands in all the counties I was in, 

 are naturally fertile, with the exception of Adams; 

 they vary, as with us, in quality, in the same 

 neighborhoodsjthough they have been much equal- 



