TS 



ON SWINK. 



LETTER FROM LEWIS Al-LEN Esq. 



Danvers, Nov. 17, 1849. 

 Dear Sir: — According to promise, I now send you the result of 

 mj experiment of keeping Swine, the past season, for the purpose of 

 increasing the manure heap, which is as follows, viz : 



On the 13th of April last, I bought ten pigs, and on the 23d five, 

 making fifteen in all. Their average weight was 144 pounds, mak- 

 ing 2160 lbs., at 6 cents, ^129 60 

 I fed them on dry corn and water principally ; occasion- 

 ally I gave them shorts and water, and the waste from 

 the house, which was a small item, as we make butter 

 only for family use. 

 I fed to them 220 bushels of corn, for which I paid, 

 delivered, $130 00 

 and 30 bushels of shorts at 23cts., 6 90 



$186 90 



$266 60 

 I sold them in September for 7 cents per pound, the pur- 

 chaser paying for killing. Commenced killing them on 

 the 19th September, but owing to the warm weather, 

 did not kill them all until the 17th of October. The 

 fifteen weighed when dressed 3951 lbs, at 7 cts. per lb., $276 57 



Profit, $10 07 



Now for the manure heap. In the first place I will tell you what 

 they had to work upon, and the kind of place to work in. I fenced 

 off a yard adjoining my barn, about eighteen by fifty feet, so con- 

 structed that I could drive in at one end and out at the other with 

 a team and plough it, or cart in materials, as occasion required. I 

 ploughed up the soil in the yard, and when the hogs had made it 

 rich and worked up fine, I then covered the yard to the depth of ten 

 or twelve inches with meadow mud or peat. When this was well 

 incorporated with the soil and manure and become soft, I spread ov- 

 er it a quantity of coarse stable manure, and when this became well 

 mi.\ed, added mud and manure as before, until I used three cords of 

 manure, for which I paid $4 00 per cord. 

 I estimate the quantity of manure made, full one cord for 

 each hog, say 15 cords, which is worth at least, $4 50 

 per cord, $67 50 



