1846. 



GENESEE FARMER 



251 



valuable suggestions, as well as some errors. — 

 The writer's remarks on the application of sci- 

 ence to the construction of farm implements are 

 to the point, and calculated to do much good as 

 hints to mechanics, as well as farmers. 



Making Pork. 



The first thing to be attained in making Pork 

 is to raise to maturity pigs suitable for flittening. 

 This operation is effected with much greater 

 economy and skill by some farmers than others. 

 We have studied the subject a little in the famous 

 pork region of southern Ohio and Indiana. — 

 Thei'e, it is no uncommon thing to see several 

 hundred swine feeding in a clover field, like so 

 many sheep, and belonging to one man. In win- 

 ter they live mostly on m;^t, getting a little corn 

 when tlie range in the forest fails. Wlien the 

 hogs live on grass in summer, they are salted as 

 regularly as sheep or cattle. On good fresli clo- 

 ver, water, and a little salt, pigs will grow and 

 do well. At the West, good farmers provide a 

 field or two of oats, or oats and peas, into which 

 their hogs are turned early, to give them a start 

 before corn is ready to i'ecd. In the dairy dis- 

 tricts in this State, the same crops are grown, 

 harvested, and the oats and peas ground and fed 

 with whey and butter-milk to swine, for making 

 pork. If the meal be mixed with boiled potatoes 

 while boiling hot, so as to swell and partially 

 cook it, before cold slops are added, the food is 

 much improved. The true way, however, is to 

 make meal of any kind into well cooked pud- 

 ding, take this out of the kettle, boil the potatoes, 

 throw away the water in which they were boiled, 

 and then mix the pudding and potatoes together 

 thoroughly. If one has no potatoes to spare for 

 feeding, it is good economy to mix a little wheat 

 bran or shorts with coin meal before cooking, as 

 the latter, if fed alone, is rather too concentrated, 

 or lacks bulk to give up to the lacteals (vessels 

 that convey nutriment to the blood from the in- 

 testines,) all the flesh and fat-forming elements 

 in corn meal. There is often a very great waste 

 of these elements in the ordinaiy process for add- 

 ing both fot and lean meat to the carcass of an 

 animal. The digestive organs should be com- 

 fortably filled with food easy of digestion, and 

 not so rich as to leave an excess of nutritive 

 matter to pass through the system, and add noth- 

 ing to its weight or value. 



Why is not a pound of corn meal, or wheat 

 flour wet with cold water, and a little salt, quite 

 as good, in a human stomach, to form blood, as 

 it would be, if well cooked before it was eaten ? 

 What chemical change is wrought in the organ- 

 ized elements of the seeds of plants, or their roots 

 and tubers, like beets and potatoes, that cooking 

 should make them more nutritious ? The baking 

 of a loaf of bread adds nothing to the mass, and 

 takes nothing away but a little moisture. And 

 yet, the baking of bread or a potato does effect 



a material change in the starch of the tuber, and 

 the starch and gluten of the flour. It render.? 

 them not only more soluble in the gastric and 

 other juices of the digestive organs, but far more 

 soluble in simple water. Everybody knows that 

 when a potato is grated to obtain its starch, that 

 the latter falls to the bottom of the vessel cori,. 

 taining water, a white, insoluble powder, floi: 

 water transforms this into a soluble gum, calleci 

 by chemists dextrine. Without pursuing the 

 science of domestic economy farther at this time, 

 we will only intimate that the practice of cooking 

 food, so universal among all nations that have 

 made any advance in the arts, is founded in nat- 

 ural laws, and advantages, which will secure th@ 

 extension of its benefits to most of our domestic 

 animals. 200 lbs. of corn well cooked, will mak« 

 more pork than 300 lbs. fed raw. And if it be 

 cheaper to cook two bushels than it is to raiee 

 one, by all means cook them. We are not sur© 

 that it is profitai)!e to give a tenth of corn or baiv 

 ley to have it ground, for feeding animals. W@ 

 suppose the gain, even for cooking, is somewhere 

 in the neighborhood of 8 or 10 per cent. The 

 hard, oily shell, or bran that surrounds the seedg 

 of all cereal plants needs to be well broken be.. 

 f(3re the kernels enter the stomach for digestion:^ 

 Simply boiling corn fails to accomplish this, si.? 

 though the hull is broken. 



Fattening hogs should be kept quiet, fed regu^. 

 larly, and have a comfortable place for sleep, anij 

 to eat their food. It is good economy to staif 

 them early in the season, for they will take oil 

 flesh and fat faster in moderately warm, than ir^ 

 cold weather. 



Destroying Insects. — This season, insects 

 have been unusually destructive toour finer fruits. 

 The Wasp, the Yellow Hornet, the Bee, th§ 

 Snapping Bug and Ants, have all been busy jn 

 breaking through the skin, and causing a premfv 

 ture decay — in some cases before the fruit waf 

 ripe. At least one-half of our apricots rotted ii| 

 consequence of these attacks, and many of ou? 

 finest peaches. A continued buzz was heard 4b 

 the trees ; and what to do became the questioiv 

 Every wasp nest that we could find was destroy^ 

 ed, together with the builders, so that a very sen^ 

 sible diminution in their numberswasobservable| 

 but still there were many left to crowd in witk 

 the other insects ; and I thought of the plan, long 

 since adopted by English gardeners, which woi? 

 to hang phials filled with sweetened water among 

 the branches. Tiiis plan has proved very suc- 

 cessful ; and if I had adcjpted it early in the sea= 

 son, much fine fruit might have been saved. .-r- 

 We will remember it next year. — i>. Tkonuts^ 

 in Ilorticultiirisf. 



Though a man may become learned by aru- 

 other's learning, he can never be wise but bv 

 his own wisdom. 



