180 



Boiled Cabbages for Swine. 



Vol. VI. 



But what is the fall given to streams by 

 nature ] We will give an instance. The 

 average fall in the Schuylkill, from Port 

 Carbon to Philadelphia, 108 miles, is less 

 than six feet to the mile. The lower 20 

 miles do not exceed 2^ feet to the mile; 

 and no part of it exceeds 30 feet. It is true 

 that some of its branches, which rise on the 

 mountain heights, may have a fall of 200 feet 

 to the mile, but their beds are rather a suc- 

 cession of small cascades — the water leaping 

 from rock to rock — than the regular slope of 

 an uniform current. But, leaving our moun- 

 tain chains, there is not a stream in all our 

 country, ten miles long, with an average fall 

 of 88 feet to the mile. And we venture to 

 say, there is not one in eastern Virginia, five 

 miles long, with that average fall. It is also 

 generally true, that streams have much more 

 fall near their sources than near their mouths. 

 Land requiring draining, has frequently a sub- 

 stratum of clay or other matter, easily abraded 

 by water. If straight drains are cut in such 

 grounds with the proposed fall, and left open 

 to receive the torrents of water rushing from 

 the neighbouring high grounds in wet times, 

 they will soon become washed into frightful 

 gullies instead of useful drains. Nature ge- 

 nerally makes a provision against such effects, 

 by the crooked and serpentine course small 

 streams assume, checking the velocity of the 

 current. 



But the most curious part of the whole 

 article, are the directions for making the span 

 level. The writer tells us, the feet are to 

 be placed exactly 15 feet apart, and that one 

 of its legs must be made three inches shorter 

 than the other. It is then to be placed on a 

 perfect level, and a mark made on the cross 

 piece, where the string of the plumb-bob 

 crosses it. That in using it, the short leg 

 must be kept in the direction it is intended 

 the water shall run in the drain, and lowered 

 until the bob-line falls on the mark on the 

 cross piece, giving of course a fall of 3 inches 

 in 15 feet. Now, it is difficult to conceive 

 how any one at all acquainted with the sub- 

 ject should give such instructions; for if the 

 instrument is placed on a perfectly level sur- 

 face, and a mark made where the bob-line 

 falls on the cross-piece, whenever the instru- 

 ment is placed on any other level surface, the 

 bob-line will again fall on the same mark, 

 and conversely, whenever the instrument is 

 90 placed that the bob-line falls on the mark, 

 the two feet are in the same horizontal or 

 level line. And it makes not a particle of 

 difference whether one of the legs is made 3 

 inches or 3 feet shorter than the other, nor 

 which end of the instrument is put foremost, 

 provided no alteration is made in the relative 

 length of the legs after the mark is made on 

 the cross piece. Perhaps the whole mystery 



and confusion of the article may arise from 

 this blunder in making the span level. And 

 while the good man thought he was giving 

 his drains a fall of 3 inches in 15 feet, he 

 was actually giving them no fall at all. Or 

 if any were given them, it was through the 

 carelessness or awkwardness of his workmen, 

 or the inaccuracy of his instrument. 



As the span or rafter level is a very useful 

 instrument, and ought to be in the possession 

 of every farmer, I had intended to have added 

 directions for making one, and how to fit and 

 use it, so as to give the bottom of a drain any 

 required fall, but this article is already too 

 long. 



S, Lewis. 



December 21st, 1841. 



Our esteemed correspondent would confer an obliga- 

 tion on the readers of the Cabinet, if he would resume 

 the consideration of this interesting subject in the next 

 number.— Ed. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Boiled Cabbages for Swine« 



Sir, — I notice that one of your correspond- 

 ents, in the November number of the Cabinet, 

 recommends boiled cabbages as a wholesome 

 and economical food for swine. My experi- 

 ence, which, in regard to those animals, is 

 not inconsiderable, does not confirm that opi- 

 nion. I have never been able to induce my 

 hogs to eat boiled cabbages with avidity; on 

 the contrary, they have generally shown a 

 marked aversion to them, unless they were 

 combined with a pretty strong proportion of 

 grain of some kind ; and even then, I have 

 doubted whether the cooking process made 

 the cabbages more conducive to the health 

 and nourishment of the animals, than agree- 

 able to their palates. If, as it has been said, 

 brutes, particularly swine, have an instinctive 

 partiality for both such sorts and such prepa- 

 rations of food as are most congenial to their 

 constitutions; and if, as I have also heard, the 

 intestines of a hog are more like those of a 

 man, than are the intestines of any other do- 

 mestic animal, the preference of swine for 

 raw rather than boiled cabbages, may be ac- 

 counted for. You have probably seen tho 

 work of Dr. Beaumont, describing the expe- 

 riments made by him in relation to the com- 

 parative digestibility of food in the stomach 

 of the soldier whose side, having been pierced 

 by a musket-ball, left a hole when the wound 

 healed, big enough to carry on such experi- 

 ments with accuracy. The doctor puts down 

 raw cabbage as having been about as easy 

 again for his patient to digest as boiled. So, 

 I have no doubt, hogs find it, and therefore 

 prefer it. My experience, too, has convinced 

 me that hogs not only prefer raw cabbage to 

 boiled, but to any other vegetable, whether 



