96 



The Cut-Worm. — Rearing Hogs. 



Vol. V. 



times the value at harvest, as well as in our 

 future operations. 



Now, I know of no one who takes more 

 pains in the after-cultivation of his corn than 

 my ancient friend abovementioned ; he is sure 

 to be the first in all its different workings 

 and counterworkings, its cross-ploughings and 

 cross-hoeings, and it is a " savour of a sweet 

 smell," when his neighbours assure him there 

 is no crop in the country that can compare 

 with his ; and yet, strange to say, all his 

 other labours are neglected ; his other crops 

 are grown over with weeds, which stare at 

 you over the fence as you walk along, and it 

 is in vain to look for his hills of potatoes until 

 the weeds are mown off with the scythe; 

 for he has found that no crop, except corn, 

 will pay for the labour of cleaning ! But the 

 fact is, the management of his corn-crop has 

 grown into a propensity, as Frank says in the 

 dialogues, and that he must indulge in, even 

 if it be to the neglect of almost every other 

 duty upon the farm ; and to give him time 

 for this, all other operations are hurried and 

 only half performed: indeed, wherever the 

 corn has failed in a hill, you will always see 

 its place occupied by some large weed, which 

 about keeps pace in growth with the corn, 

 having received with it the regular cleaning 

 and cultivation with the hoe-harrow ; but it is 

 not removed, because there is no time for it! 

 And the weeds around the sides of the said 

 corn are, in the meantime, permitted to grow 

 and flourish and perfect and shed their seeds 

 unmolested, because there is no time for their 

 eradication, no, not even with the scythe ! I 

 often think, while walking over his fields 

 with my old friend, if I were his minister, I 

 would now and tlien give him a touch from 

 the words, " these ought ye to have done, and 

 not to leave the other undone." 



No one can tell the advantage of superior 

 cultivation of the soil, and the benefit to the 

 crop from the total eradication of weeds ! The 

 crop is increased thereby, not only in quan- 

 tity but in quality also. It has been calcu- 

 lated that a strong weed, growing in a crop 

 of wheat, will draw away a great portion of 

 the nourishment from six plants of the wheat ! 

 thus rendering the produce inferior, both in 

 the quality and quantity — a matter of the 

 most serious importance. And Col. Smith 

 has shown by an account, published in the 

 Germantown Telegraph of the 12th of Au- 

 gust, that merely by the power of superior 

 cultivation, he has this year obtained a crop 

 of most excellent hay, amounting to more 

 than two tons per acre, from land that has 

 had no manure for the last nine years ! He 

 states as follows : he has a field belonging to 

 his farm, which has not been manured for 

 nine years, and yet it yielded, the present 

 season, more than two tons of superior hay 



per acre. The first six years of the nine it 

 was in grass ; then corn, then oats, and then 

 grass again. He attributed this unusual suc- 

 cess, on a soil only ordinarily good, to the 

 high degree of tillage which it received, and 

 the entire annihilation of weeds. . 



The lesson to be learnt from this is, one- 

 half the quantity of manure might be saved 

 by superior tillage and the eradication of 

 one-half the crop — the weeds — that being 

 about the proportion to the grain, throughout 

 a great part of the country. But is it a fact, 

 that agriculture will not pay for good man- 

 agement 1 Then the cultivation of the soil 

 is the only science that will not pay a pre- 

 mium upon the outlay of skill and capital 

 that may be embarked therein. 



But this is the season to plough for the de- 

 struction of the cut-worm, and, if we would 

 set honestly to the task, there is no doubt it 

 would be accomplished : lands ploughed deep 

 and laid up dry for the winter will be bene- 

 fited to the extent of a dressing of manure, 

 and can be cultivated much earlier and to 

 greater advantage in the spring: in short, 

 autumnal ploughing is the soul of good hus- 

 bandry. ViR. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Rearing Hogs. 



Mr. Editor, — I wish to add my testimony 



to that of " Siam," at page 42 of the Cabinet 

 for August; I have never been able to rear 

 the first litter of pigs from a young sow with 

 credit to myself, or profit to any one, and it 

 is now my practice to kill them for roasters, 

 rather than make another attempt. I have, 

 however, seen some who have been more for- 

 tunate, but, as a general rule, I believe the 

 thing, as I have stated it, is well established ; 

 and in a paper, which I have now before me, 

 " The Carolina Planter," I find the following 

 observation. 



" It is a fact of common observation, with 

 even our old servants who have long been 

 hog-minders, that the first litter of pigs from 

 a young sow, or, as they call them, gUt pigs, 

 are naturally of a feeble constitution and un- 

 thrifty, and difficult to raise, and even if 

 raised, never perhaps acquire the size and 

 weight- that litters of the same sow do after- 

 wards." And, in addition to this, I would 

 say, I have raised more than twenty calves 

 from young cows — their first calves — and have 

 never failed in obtaining them fine, strong 

 and healthy ; nay, if I were to double the 

 number, I should not be beyond the truth. 

 Can any of your readers account for a phe- 

 nomenon that is so generally accredited, as 

 to have grown into a proverb — " the calf of 

 a young cow, the pig of an old sow." f. 



