rEEUIKO.] 



AND Til 1:1 K VARIOUS BREEDS. 



[feedixo. 



we were able to purcliase tl>e rice, aud its 

 goodness. From slight experiments, I am 

 induced to tliitik that fqual parts of rico-jelly 

 and niashfil potatoes would coiistiluto an ex- 

 cellent food." iiay-toa is another advanta- 

 geous kind of feeding, of which wo have an 

 account given by ^Ir. liichardson. Tho article 

 was firi<t publicly announced by ^Ir. Saunders, 

 of Stroud, in Gloucesteri^hirc. This gentle- 

 man was induced to try it with pigs, 

 from having observed its elficacy in weaning 

 calves ; and the result was laid before the 

 public in the columns of tho Agricultitral 

 Magazine. In the manufacture of his tea, he 

 employed various sorts of qualities of hay. 

 The most suitable were found to bo clover, 

 sainfoin, and lucerne. The tea produced from 

 an infusion of these plants was thickened with 

 grains, pollard, bran, any kind of meal most 

 abundant at the time, boiled cabbages, or po- 

 tatoes ; but he had no carrots, or he would 

 have used them. Mr. Saunders generally 

 compounded several of these ingredients into 

 a mess, aud found that one sack of potatoes, 

 thus used, went as far in feeding as four or 

 five bags given in an unmixed state ; the ex- 

 pense being also greatly reduced. He gradually 

 increased his stock of swine to the number of 

 400, and, in the course of his experiments, 

 used upwards of 1,500 hogsheads of wash, or 

 about live hogsheads daily, llis swine were 

 thus maintained at a rate somewhat under one 

 penny per day for eacli — were in excellent 

 condition, and many, indeed, ripe and ready 

 for the butcher. He had previously been 

 feeding them on potatoes alone ; and after he 

 resorted to this new method of feeding, he, 

 within a week or fortnight, found his stock not 

 only improved in coat and skin, but in general 

 health and condition. Mr, Saunders used to 

 store his potatoes, after having them steamed, 

 in casks carefully closed ; and found that, thus 

 stored, they were preserved sweet for twelve 

 months, and fermenting, generally, a sort of 

 spirit, which, as it promoted sleepiness in the 

 swine, conduced to their acquiring fat with 

 more than ordinary rapidity, as well as giving 

 to the pork a peculiarly rich and delicate 

 flavour. One sack of meal was thus found 

 to go as far as two under the old system ; 

 and he found also, that thickening the wash 

 gradually with meal, formed the best introduc- 



tion to what are generally kuu ,vu as tho higher 

 and last stages of tho process of fattening. la 

 Mr. Saunders' calculationH, ho did not take 

 tho manure into consideration at all ; but had 

 ho done so, of course, even his eatiiiiate of ono 

 penny per day for tho feeding of one pig, 

 would have been considerably reduced. 



Indian corn is another article employed iu 

 fattening tho pig. Professor Voelcker says 

 tiiat it is richer in fat-forming matters than 

 any other description of food. Tho ready- 

 made fat, in corn, amounts to from live and 

 a-half to six percent. ; but animals should not 

 bo led entirely on Indian corn, because the 

 flesh-forming matter in it is small. Bean- 

 meal supplies the deficiency. Five pounds ol' 

 Indian corn, ground or crushed, to one pound 

 of bean-meal, is a mixture which contains tho 

 proportion of flesh-forming and fattening 

 matters nicely balanced. Flax-seed is also 

 used for fattening swine ; " but," says Mr, 

 Richardson, " such as have adopted it, have 

 not found it to answer nearly so well in the 

 crude state as in boll, previously kiln-dried, 

 and well crushed, so as to crack the seed ; 

 otherwise the animal will pass a large pro- 

 portion of the seed in a whole state. Tlie 

 whole seed also acts as a purgative and diu- 

 retic — qualities which will be seen to be opposed 

 to the secretion of fat. To prepare the bolls 

 for food, steep them for twelve hours in water, 

 which may be poured on them in a tepid 

 state, but not at boiling heat; and, prior to 

 giving the mess, add as much lukewarm wash 

 as will bring it to the consistence of gruel. 

 This wash may be produced from brewer's 

 grains, or simply from mangel or Swedish 

 turnips, well boiled and smashed, and given 

 with the water in which they have been boiled. 

 The addition of a proportion of bran improves 

 the mess ; and, when at hand, it should not 

 be omitted. The adoption of hay-tea, as the 

 vehicle for mixing these ingredients, will be 

 found also advantageous. Do not boil the 

 flax bolls. Boiling will produce a coarse, 

 tough, and not very digestible mass ; but 

 steeping, on the contrary, furnishes a rich aud 

 nutritious jelly. Linseed-cake is a good sub- 

 stitute for the bolls ; and it is to be given in 

 the proportion of a stone, substituted for 

 seventeen or eighteen pounds of ground bolls. 

 Xeither the linseed-cake nor the bruised bolls 



781 



