280 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



For the New England Farmer. 



HOW FRIEND OLIVER RAISES 

 PORKERS. 



"Oliver's the hand to raise hogs," says Uncle 

 Tom ; "it does beat all natur how he will make 

 the critters grow !" Holloa ! Oliver, said I, is 

 that so ? Come, then, you must tell us all about 

 it. "You see," said Oliver, "I always buys the 

 mangiest, scouriest thing you ever did see, and 

 yet I always gets a good pig out of him. When 

 a drover comes along with a poor, weak, thin, 

 sickly critter in his lot and I gets my eyes on 

 him, why, I generally gets him at a bargain, and 

 I soon sets him going towards being a fat porker. 

 Now there's Mason, he had a poor, sick hog that 

 had the scours as dreadfully as ever you did see ; 

 my conscience! there wasn't anything left of him! 

 Well, you see, I went to Mason to know what he 

 ■would take for him, but he was so awfully used 

 up that he said he wouldn't sell him at no rate. 

 So I gets him to bring him down to my place for 

 a dollar, and goes to work on him. I goes up in 

 the pastures and gets some hardback and makes 

 a strong tea of it, and pours it down his throat, 

 and I didn't have to do it but twice before iu cured 

 him entirely ; and then you had better believe I 

 started him ! In a week or two, I sold him to 

 Reuben, and a splendid hog he made. 



"Then, again, there's Ben Pritchard ; he and I 

 bought hogs out of the same drove ; he gave six 

 dollars for his two, and took his pick of the best, 

 and I gave one dollar seventy-five cents for my 

 one, and he was the poorest in the drove ; he was 

 as awful looking a critter as ever you seed. AVell, 

 Ben he comes over and looks at mine, and says, 

 'Oliver, why, what under the sun have you got 

 nere ! I wouldn't take that hog for a gift !' I 

 says nothing, but thinks I to myself, I'll give you 

 a tussle to beat him, my boy, if it's a possible 

 thing. Ben he used to pass by about dinner-time, 

 and so sometimes he'd take a peep at my pig : 

 ■well, pretty soon he began to stare rather hard. 

 I used to see him, but I says nothing. By-and- 

 by he would stare and stare and scratch his head 

 dreadfully ; and one day he says to me, 'plague 

 take it, Oliver, I don't see how under the sun you 

 do that!' 'Do what, Ben,' says I, for you see I 

 pretends as though I didn't know what he meant. 

 'Why, how do you get that hog to grow so?' 

 *0, never mind about that, Ben,' said I, 'we'll 

 just wait and see how he comes out.' Well, sir, 

 ■when I comes to kill my hog, and I killed him 

 ten days before his, mine weighed more than both 

 of his together, and mine was a one dollar sev- 

 enty-five hog and his two cost six dollars ! Now 

 ■what do you think of that?" I at once acknowl- 

 edged, with emphasis, that it was a grunter of a 

 story. 



Now, Oliver, said I, you must tell us the secret 

 of all this ; how can you take the "tag-rag and 

 bobtail" of every drove that comes along, and 

 make such excellent porkers out of them ? Now 

 out with the facts, every one of them. 



"Well," said friend Oliver, "I'll tell you the 

 whole secret ; it's just this : Taking good care of 

 the critters, and feeding them just ichat they like, 

 with a little knack at getting as much inside of 

 them as possible. When I takes a poor critter, I 

 Makes it a point first to start him ; so I first gives 

 him a good scrubbing, once or twice, and I boils 



up some sweet corn and milk and feeds to liim, 

 or I boils up some hasty-pudding with milk and 

 mixes a little molasses with it ; just give them 

 most anything they like best, to give them a start, 

 and when they once gets started I gets inside of 

 them all I can. For instance, I gives them some 

 meal, and when they have eaten all that they will of 

 that, I throw in a few clams or some fi^.h or some 

 waste stuff' from the slaughter-house, and they 

 eat that too ; so I gets more inside of them, and 

 that's what does the business. You see, get all 

 inside of them you can get them to eat, by giv- 

 ing them something else when they have eaten 

 their fill of one thing. As for making anything 

 out of a hog by giving them meal, meal, meal, 

 everlastingly, I don't believe in it." 



Well, Oliver, said I, you have given us some 

 ideas on hog-raising that have stood the test of 

 practical experience ; why don't you put your 

 ideas on paper, for the benefit of the community? 

 Why don't you pen them for some agricultural 

 paper ? "O !" said Oliver, "I am not used to 

 that sort of business ; it doesn't run in my line, 

 you see," 



So, Messrs. Editors, as it didn't run in friend 

 Oliver's line to put his report on paper, I have 

 attempted, humbly, to do it for him ; and I have 

 a notion that "Uncle Tom" will assent to it as 

 very nearly a literal transcript. j. J. H. G. 



Marhlehcad, Mass. 



HO"W TO DESTROY BRUSH. 



The Berkshire Ctdttirisf replies as follows to 

 some inquiries in our columns, as to the best 

 method of destroying bushes in pastures : — 



"Bush Whacker" may have some peculiarity 

 relative to the location of his pasture and its 

 connection with other lands of the farm which 

 would be important to be known, and which it 

 might have been well to have given. In the or- 

 dinary position of such lands we should feel com- 

 petent to give a practical if not specific answer 

 to the inquiry. It would be something like the 

 following : 



In the first place, see that there is a fence 

 which will keep all cattle from breaking into the 

 pasture. In the second place, see that no crea- 

 tures are turne 1 in. These are the main dii'ec- 

 tions, and if the ground is literally covered with 

 bushes, we care but little of what kind, this is all 

 that is necessary. If there are large spots free 

 from bushes, plow them as well as you can, some- 

 time in the early part of the season, and as soon 

 as the chestnuts, beech-nuts, acorns and other 

 seeds of the forest trees are ripe, plant the spots 

 with the seeds of such trees as are indigenous to 

 the soil. An eye placed upon the neighboring for- 

 ests, and especially such as are of second growth, 

 will direct what woods it maybe expedient to culti- 

 vate. Wait patiently twenty-five or thirty years, 

 and you will find your present p-!sts haAe disap- 

 peared, and in their place a wood and timber lot, 

 which will enrich you and your children, and prove 

 a blessing to all the community. If you still persist 

 in making a pasture of it, you can then cut off 

 the timber and sell it for enough to pay for land 

 and interest. Burn the brush, and put on a flock 

 of sheep ; feed close two or three years, and you 

 will have a fine, clean pasture. 



