<'iiiS ^I^X 



i^ ^4 ia^ ^MS 4^ (iiS^ 



AND II O R T 1 C U L T U Ji A L II E G I S T E R . 



PUI:L[SHED by Joseph CRUCK & CO., no 52 north market aTUUET, (Agricultural Warehouse.)-ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOR. 



VOL. MX.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY. EVENING, JANUARY 0, 1841. 



[NO. 87. 



N. E. FARMER. 



From the Albany CullWator. 



FA'ITE.MING PORK. 

 l\!a(inm Glass, in lipr delectable liis.-iPitntionsi on 

 cookerj', as a prepnratory step towards di.sliinjj a 

 eturpci.n's nose, first directs the novice in culinary 

 art to catch one : so the preliniiimry stfp in making 

 pork is to catch or procure the pig-.<. On the 

 choice of the animals nmde for fecdinj:, most of the 

 profit will be depending; and when it is recollect- 

 ed there is an immense ditFerence between the 

 plea.siircs of f-edinrr daily a pen of .'ileek, qnict, 

 tlirivinir frnmterg, and the continual irritation and 

 vexation e.vperienci'd in dealing out provender to a 

 gang of nngraleful, squealing. Rquabbling creatures, 

 of whom week a'tcr week yon are obliged to say, 

 " the more tliey eat the worse they look," the ne- 

 cessity of attention to this point of selection will be 

 apparent to all. It would be rather difficult at 

 present, in any civilized part of the country, to find 

 any one of the genuine old fashioned squealers, 

 that used to devour all a farmer's corn, and then 

 weigh from one hundred to one hundred and fifty; 

 but a little observation will show there are niulti- 

 tudes of hogs about the country, but a few shades 

 removed from these, and the task of making pork 

 from such will be t'ound both tedious and unprofita- 

 ble, [n spite of the opposition which has been 

 made by the ignorant and the prejudiced, the good 

 efliects of the importation of good breeding hogs, 

 lias long been felt in the improvement generally of 

 our swme. In some kind and degree, and under 

 some local or general name, hogs with an infusion 

 uf imported blood which has essentially altered 

 their form and propensity to fatten, are to be found 

 all over the country. The Byfield, the Mackay, 

 the Darlington, the Parkinson, and a multitude of 

 other varieties, all originating from some fortunate 

 cross of the imported and native breeds, have for a 

 number of years nearly or quite in tlie eastern and 

 middle States, displaced the alligator, shad backs, 

 and saw-horse tribe of the original stock. More 

 lately still have been introduced the pigs called 

 the Grass breed, the Irish grazier, and superior to 

 all, as combining the good qualities of all, the beau- 

 tiful Berkshire. We know that it is a common re- 

 mark anion; the stationary or no-movement fanners, 

 that it is the feed and not tlie breed that makes 

 the hog; and we know too that a more unfounded 

 and injurious notion scarcely exists. Fifty years 

 since, farmers gave their hogs more good feed in 



I making pork than is now done ; yet no one will 



I pretend the average weight at that time could be 

 compared with that reached by modern porkers. 

 In conversing with a veteran farmer of nearly 80, 

 a few days since, on this very topic, he remarked, 

 " 1 remember when with tiirce yoke of cattle and a 



! common cart, I carried to market at a single load. 



; twentysc.'ven fatted hogs, and all scarcely weighed 

 as much as half a dozen of our best hogs now 



■ weigh," 



Periiapa as good a breed of hogs for the farmer 



as can be found, would be one that with small clean 

 bone and light offals, would weigh at eighteen 

 months and well fatted, about four hundred poun<la. 

 There is no possible necessity in a hog of this 

 weight, ill having one thiid of the weight bcmc, as 

 was the case with the coarse, large-honed, long- 

 legged breeds. There is as much difference in 

 the .size of the bones in the improved hogs and the 

 old breeds, as between those of the Arabian and 

 the English dray horse; and while there should al- 

 ways be enough, too great a redundancy of bone is 

 one of the most serious defects in any animal in- 

 tended for feeding. Select then for fattening, hog-; 

 well formed, short snonts, light offals, clean boned, 

 quiet, and if possible of breeds which experience 

 has proved fitten easily, and place the greatest 

 weight where it will be worth the most, 'i'he ex- 

 tremes of the hog genus are the Alligator and the 

 Chinese. On the first, food and time are thrown 

 away; the last are, when pure, too small for the 

 farmer who makes pork to sell, but is the most 

 quiet and easily fattened of any breed. E.vperi- 

 ence has shown that a cross between the Chinese 

 and some vaiiety of fine points, but heavier and 

 larger, makes the best farmer's hogs, and the im- 

 proved Berkshires are at present deemed the nt 

 plus ultra of swinish perfection. 



Having selected your pigs, the next thing to be 

 attended to is your hog-house, pen, or place of 

 feeding. Many farmers have their pig-pen as long 

 as the road, or as lar^e as their fields, and affect 

 to wonder they do not derive as much profit from 

 making pork as some of their neighbors, who man- 

 age things differently. A pig must be kept com- 

 fortable as well as fed, if the farmer would have 

 the full profit of the materials fed out. Pens, 

 where a farmer feeds several hundred hogs, as 

 many of those of the west do, would perhaps be 

 im]iracticable, or from the low price of pork and 

 the cost of building materials, unprofitable. There 

 the farmer divid-^s his hundred acres of corn into 

 ten or twenty acre fields. When the corn is ripe, 

 his hogs, numerous in proportion to the acres of 

 corn on which they are to be fed, are turned into 

 one of his fields, and gather the corn for themselves ; 

 and this they soon become expert in doing. When 

 the first field is cleaned, the hogs are let into anoth- 

 er, and so in succession until the whole is devoured, 

 when, if the fields have not been overstocked, the 

 hogs will be fit to be driven to market;. This mode 

 of feeding would, however, be rijinou* to a large 

 majority of the farmers in the United States, and a 

 more economical method of fattening must be 

 adopted. A hog-house then, with fixtures for pre- 

 paring their food by steaming or boiling, and at- 

 tached pens and yards for the use of the swine, are 

 indispensable where much profits in making pork 

 are expected. In arranging the pens, particular 

 reference should be h;id to the convenience of feed- 

 ing, and the comfort of the animal. The pen it- 

 self should be warm and dry, and the bed free from 

 dirt or manure. Hogs love to have dirt at their 

 pleasuie, but no hog wishes to live in it constantly. 

 Experience would seem to show that the more 

 quiet a hog is, and the less he is permitted to exer- 



cise his locomotive powers, the faster he will fat- 

 ten ; and hence in many parts of Great Britain, it 

 j has become common to give each pig a separate 

 stall, so arranged that he is completely sepirated 

 from all others, has his part of the trough and his 

 feed entirely tr) him.=ielf, and is not diitiirbetl by 



the intrusion or voracity of his fellow gninters 



These stalls are so narrow that the hog cannot 

 turn in them, and whether he lies or stand--, it is 

 always with his head to the trough. The floor is 

 kept clean by slanting backwards, where a sliding 

 board or door enables a man with a hoe to remove 

 whatever filth or dung may have accumulated in 

 the stall. 



Where a number of hogs feed together at the 

 same trough, there are some among them that usu- 

 ally monopoliie an undue proportion of the food 

 and of the trough, (in this attempt at monopoly has 

 the genus sus been instructed by the genus homo'?) 

 and to prevent this, some place erect pins in front 

 of the trough, the upper parts secured in a piece of 

 timber parallel with the trough, which will prevent 

 a good deal of this tyrannieal usurpation ; while 

 others, to accomplish the same end, put wooden 

 pins across the top of the trough, which will pre- 

 vent the master or mistress of the stye from insert- 

 ing their nose at one end, and with a single sweep 

 clearing the whole. It is an excellent plan to 

 have the troughs fitted with a board in such a way, 

 that the hogs can be shut from it while the attend- 

 ant is replenishing it. This may easily be done, 

 by having one suspended over the trough by hin- 

 ges, or oiherwise, in such a manner that it can at 

 pleasure be swung forward and secured, shutting 

 the porkers from the trough or backwards, to allow 

 their access. 



A large part of the expense- of feeding and fat- 

 tening swine may be made up to the feeder, if 

 proper arrangements are made about the pen and 

 yard, to have the full benefit of the manure made 

 by the piers. The value of hog manure is so well 

 known, that it is unnecessary to say a word in its 

 favor here. For corn, it is so far beyond all oth- 

 ers we have tried, that for that crop as well as 

 others it may be considered invaluable Give them 

 a chance, and each pig that is fattened will make 

 at least two loads of good manure. To do this, 

 their pens and yards must be frequently covered 

 lightly with horse littering, for them to root over 

 and work upon. The yards attached must retain 

 the urine and wash of the pens, and into this, with 

 the straw mentioned, should be put an occasional 

 load of muck, weeds, wa.sh of the roads, or almost 

 any substance hogs will work upon, and which will 

 retain the salts and volatile parts of the manure 

 now generally lost. If the porkers do not seem 

 inclined to root over and incorporate the mass, 

 fling over it a few handfiils of corn or barley, and 

 they will soon mix it to the bottom. Keep the 

 pens clean, and keep the manure distributed over 

 the yards. Follow these directions, and the farmer 

 will find himself in the spring in possession of a 

 supply of manure, that applied to his corn in the 

 hill, or otherwise, will give, in the increased crop, 

 an ample reward for the extra labor incurred, in 



