No. 4. James Go-well's Letter to Gen. Richardson on Fanyiin;:, 



119 



able to buy of the g^razier or lay in a supply 

 of bcof from the butcher. These are mat- 

 ters that will depend solely upcin circum- 

 stances, and must be governed by them; but 

 as a general rule, the farmer should endea- 

 vour to produce whatever he may require 

 for the comfort and support of his family, 

 and avoid the laying out of money for things 

 which it were in his power to have produced 

 himself The raising of hogs for family con- 

 sumption is indispensable ; upon such a farm 

 there will, of course, be considerable waste 

 or refuse victuals, which would be lost were 

 it not for the hogs; then so far as this quan- 

 tity of feed is concerned, there is a clear 

 gain, and he must be a poor farmer indeed 

 who cannot make his hogs pay for the ex- 

 traneous supply they will require over and 

 above the portion which has cost nothing; 

 then there is the satisfaction to know that 

 his bacon, hams and lard are all of healthy, 

 well fed animals, and of his own raising. 



Two or three sows, and one choice boar, 

 of a distinct family, should be constantly 

 kept, and well taken care of It is a great 

 waste of time, and often vexatious to the 

 farmer, to be compelled every spring or fall 

 to look out for pigs to stock his pens, run- 

 ning the risk of getting animals that will 

 empty the corn-crib without hlling them- 

 selves. Far better to raise pigs from a boar 

 and sow known as easy feeders ; and should 

 there be too many to keep over, there is no 

 neighbourhood in which those that can be 

 spared will not find a ready sale, if the 

 breed be an acknowledged one ; to say no- 

 thing of the satisfaction of having it in one's 

 power to promote the interests of his neigh- 

 bour, by supplying him with a boar or sow 

 pig to improve his stock. 



The best breed of swine that has come 

 under my notice is the English Hampshire, 

 especially the sows for breeding. A real 

 Hampshire sow, after producing three or 

 four litters, may be made, with all ease, to 

 weigh 5 cwt. when slaughtered. The Ches- 

 ter county hog, so called, seems an indiffer- 

 ent specimen of the true Hampshire. The 

 next best forbears is the Lincolnshire; for 

 compactness they are almost equal to the 

 pure Berkshire?, while they excel them in 

 size: but of the Hampshires and Lincolns 

 there are few to be found of the genuine 

 breed. The improved Berkshire is, for easy 

 feeding and compactness, equal to any speci- 

 men of the swine kind ever produced ; but 

 they are sadly injured by injudicious breed- 

 ing and the imposition of dealers, who some- 

 times have sold any thing that was black or 

 spotted, in the shape of a hog, as Berkshire. 

 The objection some bring against the Berk- 

 shire, especially the sow, for breeding, is 



their want of size. The sow for breeding 

 should, it is true, have great length and 

 depth of carcass; but for fatting, this objec- 

 tion is of little consequence, for the want of 

 size can easily be provided for by increasing 

 the number. If twelve Berkshires, in twelve 

 months, with the same amount of feed, will 

 weigh as much as ten of other breeds, which 

 consume as much as the twelve, the difibrence 

 in handling twelve instead of ten, is hardly 

 worth noticing. There are other breeds, but 

 from careless breeding, there can hardly be 

 a distinction or difference pointed out among 

 them : so it will soon be, I fear, with those 

 distinct breeds already referred to, from the 

 general carelessness that pervades American 

 husbandry. At first a high price is given 

 for a pair of pigs, from some crack breeder; - 

 these, very injudiciously, are from the same 

 boar and sow; and thus, at the very start, a 

 fatal error is committed, in the afiinity of the 

 young pair which have been purchased to 

 breed from ; and this system is possibly con- 

 tinued for years, with their produce, until 

 the heads of the animals become as large as 

 their bodies. There is no animal ori the 

 farm that will so soon degenerate from 

 breeding " in and in," as it is called, as the 

 hog. 



There is another grand mistake in the 

 management of hogs, which I am bound to 

 notice — that of turning them out to graze, 

 as if they were sheep or goats. I do not 

 class as farmers corning under censure, those 

 who provide no stables or sheds for cattle, 

 nor barns for hay or grain. To such, admo- 

 nition or advice would be useless as to the 

 necessity of pens for swine. The ass, the 

 goat, the buffalo, and wild boar, have the 

 characteristics of the stock adapted to their 

 practice. But to those who have large barns, 

 comfortable stables, sheds and pens, I would 

 take leave to point out the folly of turning 

 out their hogs to graze with the cattle du- 

 ring the fall. The hog loves ease, and he 

 should be indulged ; keep him clean, give 

 him suitable food, without putting him to 

 the trouble to range for it, and he will doze 

 and grow fat, and be tender ; turn liim out 

 in the field to seek his food, and you make 

 him wild, sinewy and tough, and hard to 

 fatten after he is taken up. It is to this 

 cause that the bacon, in many instances, is 

 so coarse and disagreeable. When I have 

 witnessed the hogs feeding with the cows, 

 and the eight-rail fences, with the massive 

 posts, to keep hogs in and out, I have been 

 astonished; for it struck me that the expense 

 in maintaining the four extra rails, with the 

 extra size and boring the posts, would make 

 a considerable item in the expense towards 

 fatting the hogs in pens, to say nothing of 



