228 



Stall Feedins: Cattle. 



Vol. ir. 



owing to the bad judgment, but more general- 

 ly, the duplicity, of the broker with whom he 

 deals. Very superior cattle, weighing alive 

 over 20001bs\ may probably, neat TUlbs. to 

 the 10^; but such cattle as are more com- 

 monly sold, of which many are oxen, weigh- 

 ing from 1200 to 20001 bs. alive, from the 

 best information I iiave, I would say, 60 lbs. 

 to the 100 is a pretty fair allowance ; if not 

 altogether as fat as they should be, perhaps, 

 they would lose nearly one-half. I have not 

 tried hogs very extensively, but found six 

 shotes, eight months old, to weigh, alive 

 12851bs. with ordinary treatment; when kill- 

 ed and dressed, they weighed about 1000 lbs. 

 losing rather more than one-fifth — one 

 weighing alive 1651bs. — weighed 1301bs. 

 when dressed. There may be some profit 

 with hogs, provided you can have the pigs 

 early in the spring, and market them early 

 in the ensuing tall, but, I have doubts of their 

 being profitable when kept over winter, ex- 

 cepting for breeders. Hogs of 18 months, 

 rarely weigh over 3501bs., with the ordinary 

 treatment — and I cannot persuade myself to 

 believe that "3 1-2 lbs. of corn meal, made 

 into mush, will make a pound of pork." 



I have found it better to sell pork at the 

 usual killing time, than to salt it, and sell it 

 in bacon — it loses considerably in the dry- 

 ing. 



I had two hogs set apart and weighed, af- 

 ter tliey were killed and dressed — they 

 weighed jointly 659]bs. — After salting and 

 drying in the usual manner, they made as 

 follows : 



Hams 



Shoulder 



Flitch 



Chines 



Jowl 



Total 



127 lbs. 

 116 

 95 



45 



28 



411 



2 Shoulders before salting 641bs., when 

 dried 571bs. ; 1 ham, 351bs. when dried 

 Sl^lbs. 



In the valuable table, published in No. 20 

 of the Cabinet, I have discovered some typo- 

 graphical errors, in the most interesting part 

 — those who have it can correct them with 

 their pencil as follows: 



Erase the number 3872 opposite, 4 ft. 6 in. 

 by 2ft., draw a line connecting the aforesaid 

 2ft., with the next number to that erased, 

 which is 4840 — and so continue downwards, 

 until you shall have drawn ten lines, connect- 

 ing, lastly, 2ft. 6in., with the number 4356 : 

 then erase the 2ft. 3in. opposite to it, and the 

 correction will then be completed. 

 RftfpectfuUy yours, 



J. J. M. 



Cheater county, Feb. 11, 1838. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Farmers often state that the grain fed to 

 cattle or hogs would have sold for more than 

 the animals have brought after they were 

 fattened : when this happens after a fair es- 

 timate, taking all the proper elements into 

 calculation it is bad economy; but it is ap- 

 prehended that, on a fair experiment, it seldom 

 occurs unless it be occasioned^ by his own 

 fault in buying too dear, selling too cheap, or 

 mismanagement in feeding at loo great an 

 expense. 



As regards the rate of purchase or sale 

 under ordmary circumstances, where proper 

 knowledge of the subject is possessed, it is 

 presumed, that in the course of a series of 

 years the supply and demand regulates it, 

 as it regulates all other matters of trade, so 

 as to bring the price to a fair medium, giving 

 to each party engaged in the business of buy- 

 ing or selling a fair remuneration for his out- 

 lay of capital, risk, expense and labor. If this 

 was not the case, the particular branch of 

 business on which a loss always took place 

 would be abandoned by every body, and 

 would cease to be carried on till it would 

 produce a fair return of profit. But it is ap- 

 prehended, that the complaint, if it be a just 

 one, has its origin more in the extravagaice, 

 and waste arising out of the mode of feeding, 

 than from any other cause. The general 

 practice is, to feed with whole grain, in its 

 raw state, notwithstanding numerous experi- 

 ments have been made in most civilized 

 countries clearly ilemonstrating, that by this 

 course of proceeding, about one half of it is 

 lost, and the animal is not kept in as thriving 

 a condition as he would have been, if it were 

 steamed or boiled. Two years ago a very 

 accurate experiment was made by a farmer 

 in Maryland, in feeding a number of hogs of 

 the same litter on whole shelled corn, and 

 on mush made of corn meal. The hogs were 

 carefully weighed at the commencement and 

 termin;ition of the experiment, and it was as- 

 certained, that those fed on mush, gained more 

 than those fed with the raw whole corn, al- 

 though, the meal from which it was made, 

 weighed only one half as much as the corn, 

 on which the others were fed. This is an 

 important affair truly — n'ore meat made 

 with halfthe grain. Now, if those who feed 

 on whole grain could afford to sell their pork 

 at seven ci'uts i p,)und, that fed on cooked 

 food could be sold at four o'nts or less, and 

 nett the same profit. If the saving, by the 

 general adoption of this well known and sim- 

 ple process in Pennsylvania, should be only 

 ono cent per pound, it would make an aggre- 

 irate saving on the pork raised in the state of 

 more than one million of dollars per annum. 

 An annuity of a million of dollars a year for 

 twenty five yeiirs, would amount to a sum 



