No. 8. 



The Garden — Good Farming and Good Hogs. 



261 



gino-, &c. in order to a general sowing and 

 planting at the latter end of the present, or 

 the early part of the next month. Plants in 

 pots should now be encouraged in growth by 

 a removal into fresh mould and frequent slight 

 watering, admitting the sun and air at all 

 suitable opportunities. Many species and va- 

 rieties of seeds may now be sown in hot-beds, 

 which will astonishingly expedite the busi- 

 ness of the season. This being the best time 

 also to prune grape-vines, selecting a full 

 supply of last year's shoots for bearing the 

 present summer, shortening each to three or 

 four eyes, in proportion to their strength. 

 Prune apples, pears, and other fruit trees, 

 with currant, gooseberry and raspberry bushes, 

 planting the cuttings and suckers of the for- 

 mer in a shady border. Sow fruit-stones and 

 kernels of the different varieties of fruit, and 

 keep all clear of weeds by flat-hoeing, never 

 moulding up any crop whatever, not even the 

 potatoe: and this is the best time for planting 

 full crops of that most valuable and inesti- 

 mable root, the universal potatoe, it being 

 advisable to use the fairest and most perfect 

 roots for seed, one eye in each piece being 

 then ample. The large crops of which we 

 so frequently hear, owe their full maturity to 

 early planting, by which their growth is ac- 

 celerated so as to cover and overshadow the 

 ground, and form a shelter from the scorching 

 rays of the sun — a consideration of the high- 

 est importance, particularly in the climates of 

 the middle and southern states; and to this 

 might probably be attributed a difference in 

 yield amounting to one-half the crop. In 

 countries in Europe noted for large crops of 

 potatoes, it is customary to finish the planting 

 of the main crops in March, no danger being 

 to be apprehended from a too early planting, 

 although frosts often destroy the first shoots. 

 It is important to have the land in condi- 

 tion for an early sowing and planting, even 

 at the risk of losing a little seed; a light, 

 sandy soil being benefited by working when 

 moist, but a clay sAil or stiff" loam, when 

 worked wet, kneads like dough, and is sure 

 to bind in dry weather ; this prevents the seeds 

 from rising, and injures the plants in their 

 subsequent growth, the land becoming im- 

 pervious to moderate rains, dews, the air and 

 influence of the sun — all which are necessary 

 to the promotion of vegetation. Some writers 

 recommend certain fixed days for sowing and 

 planting, but to this very circumstance is 

 oftentimes to be attributed the failure of the 

 crops, for if the seeds are deposited when the 

 ground is wet and cold, they will become 

 chilled, and the germinative part will be de- 

 stroyed ; while in very dry weather — maugre 

 the moori's influence — the influence of the 

 sun will soon put an end to all that, depend 

 upon it. E. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Good Farming and Good Hogs. 



Mr. Editor, — I am glad to see that a cor- 

 respondent, in the last Cabinet, has taken up 

 the subject of Berkshire pigs. There has 

 been quite too much sneering and ridicule 

 thrown out against this invaluable breed of 

 swine, where the real cause has been, not 

 that Berkshire pigs were inferior, and did not 

 come up to what their friends had claimed 

 for them, but that those whose business it 

 was to sell them, had begun to quarrel about 

 whose stock was the best. In listening to 

 these interested disputes, the public have lost 

 sight of the true question, which I conceive 

 to be this: Is not the Berkshire hog, all 

 things considered, by far the best breed ever 

 introduced into the country] 



Your correspondent P. M. presents the 

 question in its proper light, when he contends 

 that the Berkshires return the greatest weight 

 for the quantity fed. There can be no doubt 

 he is perfectly correct, for a wide experience 

 in this country has proved it to be so. War- 

 ner M. Yates, of Tennessee, has now two 

 Berkshire pigs, one of which, at two months 

 old, weighed 106 lbs. ; the other, at three 

 months, weighed 107 lbs. G. B. Gunter, of 

 Nashville, has a pig which at five months 

 old weighed 202 lbs. Tiiis pig was fed with 

 no other object than that of making him a fine 

 animal. A Berkshire pig, the property of 

 James F. Taylor, of Kentucky, fed last year, 

 actually gained 21 lbs. in ten days' feeding. 

 Mr. Yates's pig, mentioned above, gained 

 28 lbs. in the twelve days preceding the day 

 it was two months old. But these illustra- 

 tions of the superior value of the Berkshires 

 could be multiplied interminably. They come, 

 too, from responsible sources, from men of as 

 high character, and strict integrity, as any in 

 the country — who have no interest whatever 

 in selling pigs. Now where is the other 

 breed of hogs from which such great and con- 

 stantly recurring results are to be obtained ? 

 I do not wish to undervalue other races, but 

 as to the common breed of our country, intel- 

 ligent farmers have long since satisfied them- 

 selves there is no money to be realized from 

 raising them. The exquisite symmetry of a 

 fine Berkshire hog, will immediately strike 

 the eye of the commonest man. Their deli- 

 cately formed heads, their short legs, and the 

 fine, long, round, deep barrel, ending in a 

 ham that a Mohammedan would be ravished 

 to behold, all place this splendid breed of ani- 

 mals at the very head of the whole race. In 

 Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and the other great 

 pork-producing states, they are preferred be- 

 fore all others, and although throughout the 

 south and west they cannot be purchased 

 under thirty to forty dollars per pair (such is 



