Vol. X.-No. 52. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



411 



SWINE. 



The following was added to the American edition of 

 Moubray on Poultry, &c, just published by Lilly & Wait, 

 ami Cartel- & llendee ; and was written and piepaied 

 for that work by the editor of the New England Farmer. 



The Iloii. Oliver Fii-ke, of VVoicester, has ren- 

 dered great service to the comnuuiity by iiUrodii- 

 ciiig to the notice of farmers in this county, a va- 

 riety of this animal, called the Bedford breed. 



The following is an extract from a letter to Mr 

 Fiske, written by his Excellency Levi Lincoln, 

 Governor of Massachusetts, and President of the 

 Worcester Agricultural Society ; originally pub- 

 lished in the New England Farmer, vol. iii. p. 222. 



"I have great pleasure in voluntarily offering 

 myself, as your compurgator in the representations 

 with which you have recently favored the public, 

 of the Jiedford breed of swine. The care and 

 perseverance which have marked your attention 

 to the prospects and value of these animals, and 

 tlie success which has followed your exertions to 

 introduce them to the favor of practical farmers, 

 require, at least, an acknowledgment of obliga- 

 tion from all those who have been particularly 

 benefited by your liberality, and from no one inore 

 than from myself. This breed of swine has taken 

 the place of a long legged, long nosed, flat sided, 

 thriftless race, called by some the Irish breed, by 

 others the Russian, which would barely pay by 

 their weight for ordinary keeping, and never for 

 one half the expense of fattening, if, indeed, grain 

 would make them fat. 



# * # # ^ 



" I had three pigs butchered from the same lit- 

 ter, precisely seven and a half inonths old. Their 

 weights when dressed were 230, 235, and 238J 

 pounds. One sold in Boston for OJ cents per 

 pound; the other was put up for family use. — 

 The ex])ense of keeping and fattening these pigs, j 

 I am satisfied, was less than any other breed I j 

 have ever raised ; and the proportion of bone and i 

 offal to the valuable parts, was surprisingly small. 

 I have fifteen more on nty farm, part designed for 

 the market in the spring, and part to be kept over 

 as store swine ; and their appearance will furnish 

 ocular satisfaction of the propriety of all which 

 has been said in favor of the breed." 



The above is followed by a communication from 

 the Hon. O. Fiske, in which" he says, " I have ob- 

 tained the following account of the introduction 

 of this breed of swine, from the Hon. T. Picker- 

 ing. He saw them first on a farm of Gen. Ridge- 

 )y, about fourteen miles from Philadelphia. Gen. 

 R. informed him that they were brought to this 

 country as a present to Gen. Washington, from 

 the Duke of Bedford, who committed them to the 

 care of an English farmer by the name of Parkin- 

 son. This inan took a farm in the neighborhood 

 of Baltimore; but instead of sending the swine to 

 Gen. Washington, Parkinson sold them. Gen. 

 Ridgely esteemed them very highly, and sent Col. 

 Pickering a pair of them, in a vessel bound to Sa- 

 lein. 



"Mr John Reed, of Roxbury, obtained the breed 

 from Col. P.'s stock. From Mr Reed I obtained 

 the offspring from separate litters, and transferred 

 them to Worcester, where by avoiding the breed 

 directly i?i a7id in, I have preserved them without 

 degenerating. The race is most perfect and valu- 

 able when unadulterated ; but affords a most valu- 

 able improvement to our native breed, when judi- 

 ciously crossed." 



Capt. John Mackay, of Boston, has exhibited at 

 Brighton, a peculiar and excellent breed of swine, 

 which have repeatedly received premiuiris from 

 the Massachusetts Agricultural Society. 



The author of Gleanings in Husbandry, an En- 

 glish work of merit, says, "There is an animal 

 kept tame in some of the East India Islands, call- 

 ed Baby-roiissa, of ihe same genus as the common 

 swine ; which, if it would bear our climate, would 

 be a useful animal, as it lives solely on herbs and 

 the leaves of trees, and never ravages gardens like 

 swine ; the flesh is well tasted." 



The West India Islands and the Azores ought 

 not to be forgotten, as producing a fine and deli- 

 cate breed of pt^s, originally, it might be presumed, 

 Spaniards, which have at various periods found 

 their way thither : such have been used fiir the 

 purpose of refining our native breeds. 



South America has also a fine breed of pigs. 

 At Lord Somerville's show, in 1809, Mr Gibbs, 

 seedsman to the Board of Agriculture, exhibited 

 a black wild pig from Monte Video. The sow 

 and litter were imported together, and were very 

 savage. They were deep in form, with very fine 

 bone. One of them fattened very young to tvven- 

 tyfour stone, and although ripe and carrying a suf- 

 ficient quantity of flair, it had more flesh in pro- 

 portion, in the opinion of the butcher, than he had 

 ever before witnessed. There was the least pos- 

 sible offal, the hiside seeming to be filled with 

 flesh. It was remarked, that the great gut was 

 smaller than the smallest gut of a small pig. This 

 pork was excellent, inclining to the savory. 



It has never occurred, that I am aware, to our 

 breeders, to preserve any of the fine foreign varie- 

 ties pure, whence possibly a still more delicate 

 pork might be raised than any we at present pos- 

 sess, granting the attempt were made with those 

 which ftirnlsh muscular ^^e^h or lean, oa well 

 as fat. Some of the wild swine of the opposite 

 continent are well adapted to such purpose, and 

 are besides very prolific. Most countries abound- 

 ing with forests have herds of swine ; these ani- 

 mals, under such circumstance, being always 

 ready to quit domestication. I remember, very 

 many years ago, two young boars retiring, on 

 French leave, to an extensive wood, then the prop- 

 erty of Mrs Eldred, between Colchester and Mer- 

 sea Island, which became subse<juently, during 

 several years, the terror of the neighborhood. 



From the Farmer's Manual. 



HARVEST. 



For this most important business, you have had 

 a whole season or I may say nearly a whole year 

 to prepare. I presume, not one single farmer has 

 left this employment to be attended to collaterally, 

 when some other jobs may be finished ; but has 

 had his eyes open upon it as a work of the first 

 moment, and is now ready with hands, and tools, 

 and teams, provided. Your rye harvest first 

 claims your attention ; is the straw all tuined, ex- 

 cepting at the joints .' and is ycur kernel become 

 so hard that you cannot mash it between your 

 thumb and finger ? or is the straw below the ear 

 become so dry, that no juice can be forced out by 

 twisting it ? You may put in the sickle, if the 

 weather is fine, and cut, and bind, and shock as 

 you go, generally. But if your stalk is very stout 

 and your ear full and heavy, let your gavils lie un- 

 til the after part of tlie day, (thundergusts except- 

 ed.) You may then bind and shock, stack or cart, 



with safety, provided you house your grain where 

 it can have free air, or your mows do not become 

 too large; in this case, your grain will need more 

 curing. The advantages of beginning early upon 

 your harvest, are several. 



1. Your grain will yield more and whiter flour ; 

 will waste less by shelling. Your harvesting will 

 be exi)edited, so as to prevent the waste of shell- 

 ing, by having your last cuttings become too ripe, 

 as is common when the first cuttings become fully 

 ripe, at the commencement of harvest. You will 

 have more time to attend to your turnip crop.i 

 upon stubble lands, before the wheat harvest or 

 afU'r the wheat harvest. You will also be in read- 

 iness for your wheat harvest, which you may cut 

 and manage as in your rye harvest. If you take 

 the same precautions against heat in your grain as 

 in your clover, by having your mows ventilated 

 undenitath with proper openings u]) through the 

 mow, for the circulation of air, the trouble will be 

 trifling compared with the safety and benefit. — 

 When your harvest is housed, you have secured 

 the prime object of your farm — bread, — tliis is 

 truly the staff of life, the basis of good husbandry 

 and good living. 



If you discover a rust upon the straw of your 

 rye or wheat, as is common upon lands highly ma- 

 nured with rich compost or yard dung, you may 

 conclude vegetation is checked, and that your 

 grain either begins or will soon begin to shrink. 



Lose no time with your sickle ; cut down your 

 grain if the kernel is formed into a consistence ; 

 the juices in the stalk will afford more nutriment 

 to the kernel in the gavil, than when standing, and 

 your crop will be saved from ruin. This method 

 is always safe and must never be omitted. When 

 yom- straw is cured, shock, stack, or house it, aa 

 before. One or two days in good weathc.", will 

 cure your grain in this state ; tut if the wcaiher 

 proves fold, bind and stack, or shock, for security, 

 and open your stacks in fair weather, until they 

 are fit to house. Every consideration must give 

 place to the saving of your crop. Ridge-in with 

 one bout ridges, such stubble lands as you design 

 to winter-fallow for spring crops. 



To Escape the effects of Lightning. — It is par- 

 ticidarly dangerous to stand near leaden spouts, 

 iron gates or palisadoes, at such times ; metals of 

 all kinds having so strong an attraction for light- 

 ning, as frequently to draw it out of the course 

 which it would otherwise have taken. 



When in a house, avoid sitting or standing near 

 the window, door, or walls, during a thimder 

 storm. The nearer a person is to the middle of a 

 room, the better. 



The greatest evil to be apprehended from light- 

 ning, is the explosion of powder-magazines. — 

 These may, in a great degree, be secured from 

 danger, by insulation or by lining the bidk-heads 

 and floorings with materials of a non-conducting 

 nature, the expense of which will not be great. 



Curculio. — This little enemy to our stone fruits 

 has not been as destructive this year as it was the 

 laSt, and the prospect is now fair for a fine crop of 

 cherries, plums and peaches. Apple orchards in 

 this vicinity promise much fruit. The striped cu- 

 cumber-bug has been less injurious to cucumber 

 and melon plants this season, than it was last 

 year. Wheat continues to promise a fine crop. 

 — Gentsee Farmer, 



