kilo 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Mat 



Fur the New England Parmer. 



"BLACK TOOTH IN PIGS." 



Mr. Editor : — There has been much said and 

 written, for a year or two past, about the "black 

 tooth in pigs." Now, I would like to know if any 

 one ever saw a pig, from the age of two to eight 

 weeks old, that his teeth^or "tusks," were not 

 more or less black. I have examined the teeth of 

 a great many, of the ages above named, and bro- 

 ken off the teeth of whole litters, when they have 

 begun to be afflicted with this disease, and have al- 

 ways noticed that the healthiest pigs had the black- 

 est teeth. 



Whether it is the teeth or not that are diseased, 

 there is something that many times proves fatal to 

 early pigs, to a wide extent, and universally, I be- 

 lieve, goes by the name of "black tooth," the symp- 

 toms of which are so generally known that it would 

 be useless for me to describe it, or its symptoms. 

 But, be the disease what it may, I have thought 

 that breaking off the teeth has prevented them 

 from dying, when not too far gone, and prevented 

 others from being thus afflicted. However, I be- 

 lieve that the breaking off the teeth is a cruel prac- 

 tice, and if proper care is used, unnecessary. I 

 have noticed that it is early pigs, or those that do 

 not have access to the ground, that are most liable 

 to this disease; and that when I have given them. 

 a clean, dry pen, well strewn with wood ashes, and 

 a good warm "nest," with a plenty of turfs of grass 

 and dirt — if they cannot get to the ground them- 

 selves — I have had healthy pigs, and much prefer 

 it to breaking off the teeth, as it answers a two- 

 fold purpose of adding to the manure heap, and 

 health of the pigs. To any person that has an 

 early litter of pigs, and has not taken the precau- 

 tion to lay by a store of turfs from the road-side 

 for his hogs, in winter, if he will take the first op- 

 portunity as it thaws, and procure some for them, 

 he will believe with me, that "an ounce of preven- 

 tion is better than a ]iound of cure," so far as black 

 tooth is concerned, if nothing more. E. s. A. 



Jacksonville, Vt., Feb. 16, 1837. 



attempted to cure him with a stifle shoe ; he 

 placed him in a stall where the mud was over his 

 fetlocks, and led him out to water e rery day, and 

 wondered why the horse did not get well ; but af- 

 ter putting him on a hard floor and carrying his 

 water to him, he recovered, and was at work in less 

 than one week. Yours, &c., ' 



Joshua Sturtevant, Blacksmith. 

 East Bridgewaier, 1857. 



Remarks. — Hogs should always have access to 

 the ground, and for breeding sows it is indispensa- 

 bly necessary. The want of this has been the 

 death of many a fine litter. 



For the New England Farmer. 



A HORSE WITH THE STIFLE JOINT 

 OUT. 



Mr. Editor : — G. W. Hayes, Jr., asks if there 

 is any remedy for a horse whose stifle is out ? I 

 will give the following : — 



Let the horse be placed on a hard, dry plank 

 floor. Put a common stifle shoe, which can be had 

 of any blacksmith, on the well foot, in order to 

 make the horse stand on the lame foot till such 

 time as the leg gets strong enough to work with, 

 which will be in the space of from one to four 

 weeks, usually in about one week. This may seem 

 cruel, but it is the only sure way to cure a horse in 

 this situation. I have known a horse worth two 

 hundred dollars turned out to pasture in the spring 

 because his stifle was out, and given away in the 

 fall because he had not got well. The owner of 

 this horse had another whose stifle was out, and 



LEGISLATIVE AGRICULTURAL MEET- 

 ING. 



[Reported for the Farmer by H. E. Rockwell.] 

 The JVinth of the series of Legislative Agricul- 

 tural meetings was held Tuesday evening. The 

 subject for consideration was, "Farming in New 

 England and the West." At nearly half-past 

 7 o'clock Hon. George S. Boutwell, Secretary 

 of the Board of Education, was introduced as the 

 chairman of the meeting, and on taking the chair 

 he said : 



I esteem it a privilege, gentlemen, to meet the 

 Legislative Agricultural Society, and I can have no 

 doubt that all the associations of farmers have been 

 productive of good. Like every other institution, 

 agricultural associations contain, or should contain, 

 an idea ; and that idea, I suppose, in agricultural 

 associations, is this ; that agriculture is not wholly 

 a manual pursuit, but to some extent an intellectu- 

 al one. And it is quite likely that we have not yet 

 come to realize to what extent it is an intellectual 

 pursuit. If we look at other professions and pur- 

 suits in life, we find that many, which a few years 

 ago were regarded as manual pursuits, principally, 

 have come to be, in their essential principles, intel- 

 lectual. I think this remark may be applied to 

 commerce, and especially to manufactures and the 

 mechanic arts. Manufactures, to a very great ex- 

 tent, are sustained in this country and in this age 

 by the development of the intellect. We do not 

 rely to any great extent upon the physical capaci- 

 ties of men. In looking over this country, I sup- 

 pose we should unhesitatingly come to the conclu- 

 sion, that the ability of the people to produce, fifty 

 years ago, was not equal to the ability of the same 

 number of people at the present time to consume. 

 That is to say, the consumption of a given popula- 

 tion in 1857 far exceeds the ability to produce, in 

 an equal population, in 1800. This increased abil- 

 ity of the people to produce has come from the de- 

 velopment of the intellect. And we find that in 

 manufacturing industry, success is the greatest 

 where mind is the most perfectly developed. This 

 may be illustrated by a reference to the East Indies, 

 where labor is worth two or three cents per day, 

 only, and where the people actually purchase gar- 

 ments, or cloth to make garments in Ei-gland, or 

 in New England, where labor is twenty or thirty 

 times as much. 



It is the intellectual power which merchants and 



