544 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



Dec. 



1856 I experimented with seed by using large, 

 medium-sized, halves, and pieces with one and 

 two eyes in a hill. These were planted in 

 rows, side by side, in the order in which I 

 have here written them, in a field of four acres. 

 They were weighed and minutes were kept ot 

 the result. I have lost the memorandum, but 

 the results are familiar to me and not likely to 

 be forgotten. The uncut potatoes rotted very 

 badly. The large ones produced more than 

 one iialf rotten ones, while the small cut pieces 

 were exempt from the rot almost entirely, — 

 probably not one bushel on the whole four 

 acres aside from the few rows where I used 

 the large seed in the experiment. 



From this result I derived additional evi- 

 dence of what I had for years regarded as true, 

 that we should use as little seed as possible 

 and secure the germ, — compeling the plant to 

 seek for nourishmpnt outside of the parent po- 

 tato, which contains the fatal poison that has 

 been accumulating in all the years of its un- 

 natural culture. I am not sure but we might 

 after years of culture in this way throw off the 

 disease and restore the plant to health again. 

 I cannot see any practical use in using seed in 

 such large quantities as many do. 



I have referred to the results obtained with 

 the Early Rose. I fear that in most, if not 

 all, these reported cases of larsje returns, they 

 have been purchased at the expense of the 

 health of the potato by ovei-stimulating with 

 manure. Time will tell how that is. It would 

 be welJ if some of our farmers of means would 

 year after year institute experiments that would 

 set at rest these ever-recurring questions, 

 about which their seems to be so many con- 

 flicting theories. K. o. 



Oct. 25ih, 1869. 



MY ESPERIEISrCE IN POEK BAISIK"G. 



The result of my own experience for sev- 

 eral years past has convinced me that the pre- 

 vailing error in pork raising is in overfeeding. 

 The hoggish appetite of the swine "growing 

 with its growth and strengthening with it3 

 strength," has met with too ready an acquies- 

 cence on the part of his keeper, and has not re- 

 warded at the meat tub the extravagant outlay 

 which has been deemed necessary to satisfy it. 

 Beyond a certam point in feeding swine, no 

 beneficial results are attained ; on the con- 

 trary, the undue development of the stomach 

 of the animal by producing an unnatural crav- 

 ing for the amount of food adapted to the ca- 

 pacity of the stomach, rather than to the re- 

 quirements of growth and development, pro 

 duces waste and consequent loss of profit 

 This, brietiy stated, is my theory, based upon 

 facts. 



Several years since, I began to practice 

 more care in the raising of swine, weighing 

 and measuring all the corn, meal and other 

 feed used in rait-ing a definite number, and 

 noting the exact amount necessary for the larg- 



est production of pork. The want of care 

 and attention to this matter will almost inva- 

 riably, as I presume the most of you readers 

 will admit, carry the expense of raising pork 

 nearly if not quite up to the value of the pro- 

 duction. 



Year before last, corn was high and pork 

 cheap. In a conversation with some of my 

 neighbors on the question of the profit or lo s 

 of making pork during that season, one stat- 

 ing that his pork would cost him fif een rents 

 per ponud, and another that he could not rtiise 

 it for less than twenty-five cents, I venturtd 

 to make the assertion that ■with corn at $l..50 

 per bushel, and pork but ten c-nts yjer p mud, 

 I would suffr-r no loss. This was in December. 

 I procured corn and meal at the a^ove nam^ d 

 price, and having three swine to fatten, I as- 

 certained their weight at that time, and at the 

 time of killing, which was in the latter p-rt of 

 February following. An exact estimate of the 

 increase in weight showed that I ha i suece- ded 

 within one-half pound of pork of accomplish- 

 ing the financial feat promised to my doubting 

 neighbors. 



My process of feeding is as follows : —I take 

 a spring pig and commence by giving him from 

 a gill to half a pint of raw meal, mixed with 

 a sufficient quantity of milk to wet ihoroughly, 

 to which I add about a half a pint of milk three 

 times a day, with a few potatoes boiled. I 

 feed a few potatoes until the pig is about four 

 months old ; my object in giving the potatoes 

 being net so much for food as to produce a 

 sufficient development of the stomach. After 

 that, until six months old, I give three pints of 

 raw meal with about four quarts of milk a day, 

 occasionally giving a few potatoes. AfV r that 

 until fattening time, 1 feed two quarts of meal 

 with four quarts of miik or water per day. 

 During fattening time I feed the swine one 

 quart of meal with one quart of drink three 

 times a day. If water is accessible to the ani- 

 mal at any and all times, it will be found that 

 he will not drink a pint a day in addition to 

 the above named quantity given with the food. 



For the past four or five years 1 have raised 

 and fatted from three to five hogs per year on 

 th t^ above quantity, averaging filte&n pounds 

 of pork to a bushel of corn. It will be i^icn 

 that I discard swill and house slops as worse 

 than useless, having demonstrated from actual 

 experience that these sloppy messes, so con- 

 veniently disposed of and so lavishly fed out 

 to the swine, render a larger quantity of more 

 substantial food necessary in fattening time, 

 in order to satisfy the cravings of appetite, 

 without a corresponding increase of pork pro- 

 duced. 



My experience has demonstrated, to my own 

 satisfaction at least, that meal fed in a raw 

 state is better than when cooked. I now have 

 a hog one year old the 21st of last June, raised 

 on the above named quantity of food, which 

 now, Sept. 21st, girths five feet, and measures 

 five feet ten inches in length, estimated to 



