NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



171 



cut and planted as before, six bushels of pota 

 toes. 



I transplanted into my garden the middle of 

 April, as before. In May, I went between the 

 rows of potatoes, and with a hoe made a small 

 hole in which I planted corn at regular distances, 

 without manure. The 3d of July, I commenced 

 digging the potatoes and hoeing the corn at the 

 same time. The potato vines, I put into the hole, 

 as I took the potatoes out, which served as manure 

 for the corn, which bore me a good crop, well ri- 

 pened. 



The result of this is, or seems to be, that two 

 crops can be raised on the same ground the same 

 season, and the potatoes secured against the rot, 

 which takes the vines in August, which, if left 

 until fall, would, I have every reason to believe, 

 be sound, as they are so far advanced at the time 

 the disease attacks them. Truly yours, 



Samuel B. Nichols. 



Wenham, Jan. 5, 1852. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 ABOUT PIGS AND PIG-PENS. 



BY SILAS BROWN. 



Mr. Editor : — Since potatoes have become too 

 scarce to feed swine upon, there are but few peo- 

 ple who can afford to winter over pigs for their 

 next year's pork. An estimate of the expense of 

 feeding pigs from the weaning in summer or fall to 

 the next spring or summer, whether fed on grain 

 or roots, in this section of the State, will amount 

 to as much or more than we pay for drove pigs in 

 the spring after being wintered. Since it has be- 

 come a common practice to purchase of drovers, 

 we have to take such stock as they have on hand, 

 which are mostly bred in the Western States 

 where the breeders of such stock are not very par- 

 ticular in selecting (if I am not mistaken) the best 

 kind of animals to breed from. I have been in the 

 practice of buying my pigs from droves for a num 

 ber of years, but have seldom got one of a good 

 breed ; the most of them are coarse haired, thick 

 skinned, long eared, long snouted, long legged, 

 slahsided, and greedy-mawed sharks, better adapt- 

 ed for racers than making palatable pork. The 

 same amount of food consumed by one of this 

 every way long breed to fit him for the knife, giv- 

 en to a pig of a good breed and of an opposite de- 

 scription, will produce from 12 to 50 per cent, 

 more pork, if I am not extremely wild in my 

 "flights of fancy." I have not skill enough to 

 designate and give names to the different varieties 

 of the grunting fraternity, or to apply the titles 

 to emigrants from different English counties, or to 

 trace their pedigrees back to their bristly vocifer- 

 ous ancestors, and therefore, I shall acquiesce in 

 submitting to the judgment of the stock breeder to 

 select the Middlesex, Suffolk, or animals of any 

 other description which will meet the approbation 

 of the public. 



I know of no animals among us so far in the 

 rear of "good breeding" as our pigs from the West 

 are. It would decidedly be a point of economy 

 and a benefit to the swine breeder as well as the 

 purchaser, to select the best and most approved 

 animals for breeders. Every farmer or swine 

 breeder by a little observation and care can im- 

 prove his swine by crossing with the breeds which 

 have the best marks and give the most credit for 



being fed well. If our western producers would 

 improve their races of swine, and send us well 

 limit and handsome pigs, they would not only be 

 gainers, but would confer a favor on the purchasers 

 in New England. Their good likely pigs would be 

 better worth six cents a pound, than those mis- 

 shapen apologies for hogs would three which com- 

 pose the most numerous part of the droves sent 

 us. We, New Englanders, cannot compete with 

 our western friends in swine breeding for market ; 

 at the West every kind of animal food and food 

 for animals is produced in great abundance, and 

 the rapid conveyance to market by steam, instead 

 of the old tardy and expensive process of driving, 

 will give the western farmers the privilege of sup- 

 plying our markets at the North, if they see fit to 

 improve* and send us a better breed of swine. 



While on the subject of pig breeding, I will sug- 

 gest an improved plan of constructing a cheap 

 platform to facilitate grunter's operations in mak- 

 ing manure. About 20 years ago, I found my 

 hogs had penetrated too deep in their pens by 

 rooting up large quantities of gravel and sand un- 

 fit to make manure, and we floored over one pen 

 with thick plank; the other, for the want of plank 

 and flat stones, we paved with cobbles, in a simi- 

 lar manner to street paving. The pen paved has 

 answered every purpose for a floor for the hogs to 

 work upon at composting manure. The plank 

 floor began to rot after a few years, and all decayed 

 away years ago, while the paved pen continues 

 good, the hogs not starting a cobblestone to the 

 present time ; and the pavement has improved, if 

 any alteration has taken place, and become more 

 compact and smooth. The planks used in one pen 

 were worth 20 dollars a thousand ; the pavement 

 cost nothing but the labor of placing the stones ; 

 in this case the cheapest is best and best cheapest. 



I have been of the opinion, for many years, that 

 pigs are injured by driving to market ; they do not 

 thrive as well as those bred in the neighborhood ; 

 many of them are troubled with a bad cough. I 

 purchased one that had a cough and did not thrive 

 well, and on cutting him up, found several of his 

 ribs had been broken ; many of them have tuber- 

 cles in their indurated livers, which will prevent a 

 healthy action of the digestive organs and a rapid 

 accumulation of fat. Hurrying or over-driving 

 swine, (if not injured by blows,) will cause a rapid 

 circulation of the blood, and consequently unnatur- 

 al heat and fever, which hinders their growth and 

 produces diseases of the liver and lights, and ren- 

 ders them of little value. It takes a long time for 

 a "sick pig" to recover, after being heated by 

 driving, by which the purchaser is the loser in 

 the growth and keeping. s. b. 



Wilmington, Dec. 15, 1851. 



RECLAIMED LAND. 



John Shipraan, of Amherst, gives the results of 

 his labors in reclaiming fifty acres of swamp land, 

 in a report made by him to the Amherst Agricul- 

 tural Society. This land, when commenced upon, 

 moi'e than twenty years since, was a regular peat 

 swamp, and worth comparatively nothing. In 

 1849, forty acres of it produced 10,000 bushels of 

 potatoes. At various times, eight acres of it have 

 produced GOO bushels of corn ; ten acres, 2,500 

 bushels of potatoes ; broom corn at the rate of 600 

 pounds per acre ; and last season, fifteen acres pro- 

 duced more than 1,700 pounds of tobacco per acre. 



