NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



523 



turn-out for plowing ever known in the State. 

 Forty-three teams were entered for plowing, but 

 six of them did not contend for the prizes. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 DISEASED SWINE. 



Mr. Editor: — It is perhaps unnecessary for me to 

 say that some copies of your Nciv England Farmer 

 find their way " down east," as^faras the Pro- 

 vines, and that they are read with interest and 

 profit by all who enjoy the pleasure of their peru- 

 sal. I notice your kindness in replying to inqui- 

 ries for information from your numerous readers, 

 and I venture myself to seek instruction from you, 

 or some of your correspondents, in reference to a 

 disease that has affected my pigs, and also those 

 of some of my neighbors, for several years. 



As I can give it no name, I will only attempt to 

 describe its effects. Three years ago, I had a lit- 

 ter of pigs, which were fine looking and thrifty till 

 they were about a month old, at which time some 

 of them became weak in the limbs and hack, and 

 unable to follow the sow, (they ran in a small 

 pasture,) and continued to grow worse till they 

 were unable to travel at all, and finally died. — 

 Some of them were taken from the sow before they 

 were taken sick, and these ate well and did not 

 fall away much till they died ; some of them were 

 sick two or three weeks. I had not much trouble 

 in this way last year, and to avoid it altogether 

 this year I got a fine sow of another breed, which 

 had a litter of eight pigs. These, when about a 

 month old, were taken with the same disease as 

 those of three years ago, and four of them died. 

 The others appeared very healthy. I let them 

 run with the sow till about eight or nine weeks 

 old, feeding all together, and then shut the pigs 

 up by themselves, and fed, as I had done before, 

 with whey and ground barley, and wheat bran 

 mixed. In about a week they refused to take 

 their usual allowance of food, and thinking they 

 would do better to turn them out again, I did so 

 (at night) and found that some of them were blind, 

 In the morning I found one of them describing a 

 circle not unlike a young dog chasing his tail ; a 

 second sitting upon his haunches, throwing his 

 head up, and a third stretched upon his side, jerk- 

 ing his body in perfect agony. One of them died 

 before night, and thre^fi within two days. 



I have, of course, all along tried to learn the 

 name and for this distemper, and cure have been 

 told by some that it was " hooks or hawks" in 

 the eyes, by others, that it was " rickets," and 

 so on. In the last case I cut out what they call 

 "hooks in the eyes," and gave charcoal and brim- 

 stone with milk, poured it down with a bottle, as 

 they refused, hog-like, to take either food or medi- 

 cine. 



I have now, Mr. Editor, told my pig story, and 

 any directions in the shape of a cure will be thank- 

 fully received by myself and many others in this 

 vicinity, who are like myself, without pigs. 



While I am writing, I may just say that in this 

 province we have suffered, during the last three 

 months, severely from drought, which hasrendered 

 our hay crop, and by the way in this county, one 

 of our most essential crops, only about one-third 

 as much as we usually get. 



A Provincial Farmer. 

 Annnynlis , Nova Scotia, 1852 



Remarks. — We take great pleasure in answer- 

 ing all questions relating to the interests of the 

 farmer, whenever we have -the knowledge that is 

 sought, and the time to communicate it. And we 

 think it no vanity in us to say that there is no 

 item of farm business, that we ten now think of, 

 which we have not engaged in, from raiding the 

 flax, pulling, breaking, swingling, hatchellirg and 

 spinning it, and shearing the wool, (aiding, sj in- 

 ning, quilling and weaving it into cloth. The latter 

 operations were engaged in when a boy from the 

 mere love and fun of the thing ; but we have not 

 forgotten the movements, and dare say that we 

 could spin wool or linen, and weave now, passably 

 well. All the other manipulations of the farm 

 are also familiar, as well as rearing and tending 

 cattle, swine, and sheep and poultry. In answer- 

 ing questions, therefore, Ave usually feel a degree 

 of confidence which we could not have, were these 

 matters only familiar to us from the books ; and 

 these things are only mentioned that those read- 

 ing may have confidence in our replies to their 

 questions. 



But we cannot enlighten our friend in regard to 

 his diseased pigs ; we have had no experience of 

 the kind, and do not recollect such eases described 

 in the books. But among our numerous and in- 

 telligent readers, we have no doubt that sime 

 valuable aid may be found ; and we doubt not they 

 will communicate it. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 LIME AND SALT AS FERTILISERS. 



Mr. Editor: — Dear Sir, — Having been induced 

 by a statement made by Professor Mates, of New 

 Jersey, in relation to the value of Shell Lime 

 mixed with salt as a manure, to try an experiment 

 to test its value, and the result corroborating, not 

 only his statement, but upon an examination of 

 Dr. Dana's Muck Manual, since the result, I find 

 that he strongly recommends the use of lime and 

 salt as a valuable manure mixed with meadow 

 mud or peat. Knowing your anxiety to communi- 

 cate anything that would be beneficial to the farm- 

 ing interest, I have been induced to make the fol- 

 lowing statement or result of the experiment, viz : 



The farm which I occupy is the one formerly 

 owned by John Augustus, near the common, in 

 Lexington, and the meadow is on the Bedford 

 road ; average depth of peat, about G feet. This 

 is the second year that it has been cultivated 

 since it was in grass, and one part, about a quar- 

 ter of an acre, was planted with potatoes, (a seed- 

 ling called Danvers red) in drills, and manured 

 with common barn-yard manure. The other part 

 was planted in hills with not more than half the 

 quantity of manure from the same heap (seed the 

 same in both instances,) and contained about l-8th 

 of an acre, but the last had 4 barrels of shell lime 

 and one bushel of salt dissolved and thrown on to 

 slack it,and mixed with a cord of the mud from the 

 ditch alongside, and adjoining the land on which 

 it was used. After carefully measuring two rods 

 of the land where the salt and lime were used, and 

 digging the potatoes, the product was 5 bushels 



