®l)c Jaxmtt'B iHoittl)lij btsitor. 



133 



sliecp. "This, it is said, was tlie average, nb- 

 soliituly, iji cash;" and it is added that "the 

 grower was to receive one cent per pound tnort?, 

 provided the new taritt'-bill did not pass." 'I'his 

 flock it is said, averaged old and yunnfr, a litUe 

 over SI GO per Iiead. Messrs. 1*. & 15. have a 

 wool depot at Springfield, where wool is .sort- 

 ed and sold for the various kinds of maunlac- 

 turcs. 



To Raise or Buy his Bacon : 



Jf'/tich is best for Ihe Farmer :> — Size and Kind of 

 llo^ best suited to it, 



O.v THE Uoo.—J]Jessrs. Fled S,- Stan: — M your 

 reqnest I forward you an account of my mode 

 of treatinji; hogs. 1 have on my farm an or- 

 chard containing many choice (iuit trees, bearing 

 sweet apples. They were planted expressly for 

 liogs, apples being the principal food on which 

 they are Hid during the season ; sometimes by 

 way of change, they receive sour apples, always 

 fed raw at regular hours. The food is occasion- 

 ally varied by adding garden refuse such as cab- 

 bage-leaves, caulitlower, &;c., together with the 

 slops Horn the house. Unless so fed, a mon; e.v- 

 pensive animal cannot be kept, especially in a 

 comitry where corn can be sold (or irom G'ii 

 to 7.5 cents per bushel, and other grain in pro- 

 portion. This is a luxury my hog;s never partake 

 of. If corirand apples were worth the same per 

 bushel, 1 would leed apples in preference : the 

 pork is sweeter, and fifty per cent whiter; it 

 may lose a little by boiling; if it does, however, I 

 liHve never noliced it. They are the most pio- 

 lific aidmal we have, producing at a birth nmn- 

 bers varj ing tl(iru six to twelve twice in each vear 

 if fijund desirable by the owner. In eleven jears 

 a single sow, averaging at each litter six pigs, will, 

 in ten generations, produce six millions Ibm' 

 liundred and Ihlrly-four thousand ei;;lit hundred 

 and thirty eight pigs. Extend the calculalion lo 

 the twelfth generation, and the result would be 

 as great a number as all Kiuope could support, 

 and to the sixtet^nh generation, the whole world 

 would be overstocked.* 



When my sows are pregnant they are kept 

 apart from oiher bogs; at the birth of the young 

 pigs they are removed Hir a few bonis from the 

 dam, as they an; iii danger of being iujmed by 

 her motions. She is led judiciously for the 

 first fve days, after which she is allowed a full 

 tpjantuu] of food three times each day, but ncv- 

 overfed. Her troughs arc cleansed after each 

 meal, and her peir daily, alter which it is littered 

 will) fine broken straw. 



The pigs are daily accnstonied to feed on 

 milk mixed with bran, and at the age of two 

 months weaned. They are always kept in con- 

 finement, converting rul)bisb into manure. My 

 second brood of pigs are sent to New-York 



*The natural term of the fiog's life U little known, for 

 the plain reason tlu;t every ni-in's Itand is raised against 

 Inni, as if iie were liostis ftxtmar<i t^eneri^t, a pirate and an 

 outlavv ! But it la related by Kev. Gilbrt White on 

 tliis subject, tliat a neighbor of iiis kept a liail-brGd Ban- 

 tarn sow, " wlm wap as Ijiiclc as she was U-ng, and whose 

 belly swept the ground untM slie was ses'enlecn, when slie 

 showed sonie tokens of aje by the decay ol her tectli 

 anrl the decline nl her fertility, and was then (aliened 

 and killed." I-'or ten years she produced two litters 

 annually of about ton and once above twenty to a litter. 

 At a moderate coinpution, she was allowed to have been 

 the mother of some three fiundrtd pi^s ! 



The hog aflnrds a striking example of the efTects of 

 ciirisculalion, which says the same reverend and amiable 

 author, brings man, beast and bird, to a resemblance to 

 the oihcr sex. 'I'hus, eunuchs have smooth unmuscular 

 arms, thiglis and legs ; broad hips, and beardless chins, 

 and squeaking voices. Capons have small combs and 

 gills, and have a pallid look, like pullets, about Ihe head ; 

 and barrow hogs have small tusks like sows ; but if lefl 

 in possession of their masculine faculties unabridged, 

 their tusks on which they rely as the horseman on his 

 sword, grow to inimense size. On our late tour to the 

 South, we were presented wirli a brace of these warlike 

 weapons, sharp pointed as a Cossacks spear, and curved 

 like a Turkish cilr.lter. They had been brandished in 

 the days ol' boarish vigor by a famous gruiiler, property 

 of Col. Huger, the nccomplisiied and indefatigable Post- 

 master of Charleston, and were large enough for, and so 

 shaped as lo suggest their being made into handles for 

 horse-whips. 



But a certain author on Husbandry carries the mutila- 

 tion or loss of the sexual developments still farther; for 

 he says the loss of the insignia alone, is sometimes fol- 

 lowed by a loss of the function itself. He had a boar so 

 fierce and venereous that lo prevent mischief his tusks 

 were broken oB ; no sooner hid he suffered this insulting 

 injury than his powers forsook him, leading him to turn 

 tail on those Icmalas from which no fence could before 

 restrain him. Ed. Farm. Lib. 



market, and are sold to the packets as roasters. 



The store bogs are winteicd cliielly on sugar- 

 beets and carrots, occasionally boiled potatoes, 

 and frequently charcoal dust, which keeps them 

 in porfi;ct boalth ; their legs are often rubbed 

 with a corn cob, to op(Mi the i.ssues and cause 

 Ihe blood to circulate freely, otherwise staggers 

 may ensue. 1 fatted two hogs year before lust 

 entirely on sweat and sour apples, led alternate- 

 ly. I'or three or four months they received 

 no other Iboil, except occasionally charcoal ; wa- 

 ter was even denieil ihein. Tliey weiglied, 

 when killed, two bun(lre<l and fifty pounds 

 each; the whole hog was covered with a very 

 thick layer of fat, perfectly white and firm ; the 

 skin was thin, and the pork pronounced by con- 

 noisseurs exceedingly fine and sweet ; llie hams 

 were not inferior to Westphalia. 



This last year, 1845, on the Inst of October, 

 I confined sixteen hogs in an enclosure about 

 sixty li-'et square, in one corner of vvbicli 1 

 placed all my pnmice, after having extracted the 

 cider, and permilted the liogs tluee limes each 

 day to partake of it one hour, iii which lime 

 thry completely filled themselves lo repletion. 

 They were allowed no other food dnriiig Octo- 

 ber ami November. The first week in Decem- 

 ber they were killed, and falter animals 1 never 

 saw. They were sold in New-York for two 

 cents per lb. above the market price. 



1 am &c. R. L. P. 



Editorixd Remarks. — We deem the Experi- 

 ments of Mr. Pell of great importance; especial- 

 ly in the older States. Jf Fanners can cultivate 

 fine fruit, send the finest to market, (bed the 

 refuse to stock, ami thus avoid liilleuiug their 

 hogs, in particular, on grain, a very considerable 

 per centage will be added to the profit of farm- 

 ing. — J\l'ei.u-York Farmer and Mechanic. 



The quesiion between raising hogs and buy- 

 ing pork is one which admits of and demands 

 nice and cautious calcnlation. Here for exam- 

 ple, in this essay, the writer says their pW)!ci;?a/ 

 food is apples "during the season;" but the 

 question arises, What proportion does the sea- 

 son of apjiles liear to the life-time of the hog? 

 What is the value of land thus appropriated 

 "expressly" to the growth of "sweet apples" 

 for bogy, and the cost or value of other things 

 on which they must live during at least three- 

 Ibmlhs of their lifetime, and also of the labor 

 cmplojed in attending them.' Then, again, the 

 breeding-sows are to be ft'd all the year round. 

 There is in liict, no question of rural economy 

 which, (or its solution, depends on so many and 

 such various cnnsideialiuns, before we can de- 

 cide with confidciiec and certainty whether it be 

 most economical to buy or rear our own meat. 



Generally it is better to breed, raise, and man- 

 ufacture as much as possible, wiiliin ourselves ; 

 because tliim we are sure that, so far, there is 1)0 

 actual outlay of money; and "a penny saved is 

 l«o pence got," as Poor ilicliard say.s. Yet 

 there is siich a thing, and that a very common 

 one as "saving at tlie spii;ot and losing at the 

 bung." In many parts of the country, hogs 

 superinduce the necessity of much addition- 

 al ouilay for fencing. 'I'hey, are like some 

 men and nations, prrne lo mischief and depre- 

 dation, with this exception in their favor, that 

 they wait to lie prompted by the stings of hnii- 

 ger, and do not wantonly break through or over, 

 and pass beyond iheir legitimate bounds. Then, 

 again, as we know, in many parts of the United 

 States, great allowance in the number to be 

 bred anij reared to a certain age must be made 

 for thieves, who steal a lai'ge proportion ; so 

 that out of a given number in the fields and 

 woods, the owner never knows how many he 

 can count upon to kill, until they are "put up" 

 to be (aliened, and sometimes not even then. — 

 may it not be assumed that the bogs slaughtered 

 ill the United States average a eonsiimption of n 

 barrel and a half, or seven bushels and a lialf 

 of corn alter they are penned, besides all other 

 expenses, w hich are nnnieroiis and hard to be 

 defined ? 



There can, we should think, be little doubt, 

 that on every estate there should be a certain 

 number of " sty " hogs to consume the ofFal of 

 the garden, the truck-patch, the kitchen, the 

 dairy, and the quarter.'^. The number to bear a 

 certain proportion to the number of persons 

 subsisted, and the extent of provision and ar- 



rangements for the diflerent objects from wliich 

 the oflld is to be derived. For every one must 

 be aware, that while no good manager on a 

 fiu-m is without abundance of milk, and butter, 

 and a reasjonahle variety of wholesome and sub- 

 stantial fruits and vegetables, there arc too many, 

 again, who think of nothing but monej, and 

 (or its sake forego all that money can buy, 

 that is worth having, in the estimntion of a reas- 

 onable and cultivated mind. Ay, is it not la- 

 mentably true, that there are many, very many 

 large landholders who drudge on through the 

 year, with but a mean, scanty, inadequate sup- 

 ply of milk, butter, vegetables, and fiuit? — men 

 wlio do not look aiiead and make provision in 

 time for a good, well filled diary, orchard, or 

 garden ; who are often without a pound of 

 tiesh, sweet, fragrant butter; without a nice, 

 cool spring; without an ice-house; without a 

 plate of nice strawberries, or cherries, or apples, 

 or pears, or plums, or grapes, or peaches, or a 

 melon, or raspberry, or vegetables, except, per- 

 haps, a few potatoes or drum-head cabbages, 

 when these are everywhere in full season ? — in- 

 stead of liaving, of these plain and substantial 

 things, abundance and to spare, for every one, 

 black and white, rich and poor, on his estate ! — 

 We do not decry such management, or rather 

 cross and scandalous mismanagement, as a 

 thing of rare occurrence, because then, though 

 it might be more pointedly disgraceful to the 

 individual, it would not be a stigma to the neigh- 

 borhood. We deprecate the neglect to vvbicli 

 we refer, as a thing too common throughout the 

 country, thougli less so, we may hope, than it 

 was some years since. Its connection with the 

 subject in hand consists in the consideration that 

 where there is this neglect of gardens, and or- 

 chards, and dairies for the sake of exclusive (we 

 had like to have said a vulgar) devotion to a 

 single staple crop, tliere can be little offiil for 

 hogs: and even where an orchard of "sweet ap- 

 ples" is (ilanted "expressly" for hogs it is to be 

 presumed that nt least three-fourths of the timo 

 and as much of the growth and weight of the 

 hog must otherwise be provided for. 



In New-England, it is said that good man- 

 agers consider the manure to be made by a pen 

 of bogs, kept up through the year, as affording 

 an offset against the expense of keeping them ; 

 but this can only be realized, to a certain extent, 

 when the pen is kept well supplied with litter 

 to be compounded with manure, and that, again, 

 can only be done by labor, which, like time, is 

 but another word for money. 



We remember to have seen, last summer, on 

 the road beyond Newburyport, Mass. a very fat, 

 large hog, which might have stood for a picture 

 of health and obesity. Waiting for the cars, we 

 obtained from the owner a brief history of his 

 life and adventures. These were very simple, 

 resembhng very much those of other lazy, fat, 

 uneducated simpletons, who dole out their ex- 

 istence m ealinf! and sleeping ; Imi the sum of 

 his big hog's statistics was, in the opinion of the 

 owner, that though he had taken all the offal of 

 his bouse, lie "guessed" he had "cost more 

 than be would come to, " so that, after all, "to 

 buy or not to buy — that is the question ; " and 

 it would be curious to see how the calculation 

 of sagacious men would compare, when mado 

 under apparently the same circumstances. Fi- 

 nally, apples may make Y'ankeo "pickled pork " 

 "sweeter and fifty per cent whiter" than that 

 of corn-fed hogs; but if you would have "hams" 

 made into bacon " not inferior to Westphalia " — 

 and wlien hams are spoken of, bacon is under- 

 stood, not pork — let the hogs, according to our 

 observation, which is "some," have "woods 

 range;" let them roam the forest, enjoying the 

 largest liberty, cracking the beechnut, the chest- 

 nut audi the acorn, snuffing the pure air and 

 slee[iing in the upturned virgin earth of the 

 country, until the middle or last of November ; 

 let them be " put up " just long enough to in- 

 crease and " harden their fat" with new corn, 

 or, yet better, corn meal, with clean water ; and 

 having then, at from 14 to 20 months old, car- 

 ried them to from 130 to IGO pounds, some lime 

 before or about Christmas, let their lives be tak- 

 en, not in wantonness or malice, as men destroy 

 each other in war, but in fulfillment of their 

 appointed fate. The ham of hogs weighing from 

 130 to 160, will be from 10 to 15 pounds. It was 

 recommended by Col. John Taylor, of Caroline, 



