50 



NET/ ENGLAND FARMER. 



Rubbing' and cnrryin!? the liities of falling 

 hogf>, is of great adviiiitagc to them. It is not 

 only very grateful to them, but conducive to 

 their health. It will be well, likewise, in cv- 

 «»ry stye to place a strong post for the animals 

 to rub against. During the lime of their fat- 

 ting they should have plenty of litter, which 

 will be a double advantage, providing for the 

 comfort of the animal, and increasing the quan- 

 tity of manure. 



Boiled or steamed clover hay will, it is said, 

 keep store hogs in the winter, but the addition 

 of boiled or steamed potatoes or carrots will 

 much increase the value of the wash. ]\lr. 

 Young ilirects to soil or feed swine in a yard 

 on clover, cut nj> with a scythe, in preference 

 to pasturing them in the field. But Judg^e Pe- 

 ters, of Pennsylvania, says, "in summer my 

 hogs chiefly run on clover. Swine feeding on 

 clover in ihe fields will thrive wonderfully ; 

 when those (confined or not) fed on cut clover 

 will fall away." hi Indian harvest, the unripe 

 ears of corn should be picked out and given to 

 the hogs as tast as they can eat llicm. Sot't corn 

 (as it is called) will do them much moK good 

 in a green than in a dried slate, and it is very 

 diificult to dry it without its turning mouldy. 



There is a great advantage in boiling, steam- 

 ing or baking almost all sorts of food given to 

 swine. The last American edition of the Do- 

 mestic Encyclopedia, informs that Mr. Timothy 

 Kirk, of Yorktown, Fenn. led one pig with bod- 

 ed potatoes and Indian corn, and another with 

 the same articles unboiled. The two animals 

 ■were weighed every week, and the diflcrence 

 between them was as G to 9. The experiment 

 was continued several weeks, and the animals 

 alternately fed upon boiled and unboiled food, 

 with an uniformity of result, which Sufficiently 

 showed the very great profit arismg from boil- 

 ed food." Steaming will answer as good a pur- 

 jiose as boiling, and with a proper apparatus, 

 may be more easily and chcai>ly effected.* Po- 

 tatoes, meal, and a little linseed boiled togeth- 

 er, make a rich and excellent wash. Boiled 

 linseed, it is said, has a tendency to make pork 

 soft and oily, and should thi reforc he but little 

 if at all used towards the close of the time in 

 which hogs are fattening. Grains of distilleries, 

 and the refuse of starch-factories are excellent 

 for fatting swine. Sweet apples are very goud 

 -food for them, and a change of diet pretty often 

 promotes their health and quickens the process 

 of fattening. Their meals should frc'pienlly be 

 seasoned with a tittle salt. The Complete Far- 

 mer says that '• moist sedgy grounds are good 

 for swine, the roots which grow in such sods 

 they will eat ; likewise brakes, fround nuis, 

 acorns, chesnuts," &.c. Dr. A'ldc'i'son said that 

 the hogs that are fed upon the acorns that they 

 gather in the woods of G.-;raany and Poland 

 arc reckoned to yield the finest bacon of any in 

 Europe ; and it is to this that most people as- 

 cribe the superior excellence of VVeslphalia 

 hams. It might be well to try acorns sle.imed 

 or lioiled, in order to correct their crudenfss 

 and bitterness; and it has been recommended 

 to moisten them, and keep them on hand till 

 they begm to sproul, when they will be more 

 sweet and nutritious than in their original state. 

 The Complete Farmer asserts that " when h"gs 

 are fatted entirehj on acorns, chesnuts, and other 



Sec N. E. Farmer, vol. i, p. 23 



productions of the forest, the (lesh will eat I 

 much better and sweeter than if fatted in a 

 stye. Some indeed say their fat will not be so 

 solid, nor so protllaWc, and therefore they com- 

 monly shut thetn up a week or ten days, and 

 feed them with (|i^ peas; but this is a mistake, 

 experience having shown that hogs, J'aitcd with 

 acorns only, have (heir fat as solid as those J'aitcd 

 ivith peas.'''' If this he correct, the value of 

 acorns as food for swine is not generally known 

 in those parts of the United States with which 

 we have been acquainted. We have seen pla- 

 ces in the neighborhood of fanners' dwellings, 

 where bushels might lie had for stooping, but 

 wore as much negl<>cted as if they had been 

 pebble stones. The acorns recommended are, 

 we believe, those of the white oak ; and wheth- 

 er the acorns of the numerous other kinds of 

 oak are of any value as food for swine we can- 

 not say. It might be well to try them not only 

 raw, but boiled or steamed, and likewise ground 

 into meal and given with, as well as without 

 other mixtures. We suspect that acorns alone 

 would prove astringent, and if so, they might 

 be qualified with a trough full of raw potatoes. 

 Carrots, according to Mr. Young", are better 

 I htm potatoes, and some other writers assure us 

 ihat parsni|)s are better than either for feeding 

 hogs. An English writer says " they fatten all 

 iheir pork in the island of Jersey with parsnips. 

 They are much more saccharme than carrots, 

 and it is v/ell known that nothing fattens a hog 

 faster, or makes finer pork than the sugar cane :" 

 Hid we are told that parsnips suffered to re- 

 mam in the ground whore they grew through 

 the winter, and drawn in the spring and boiled 

 tops and bottoms made most excellent food for 

 swine, when other food was scarce. 



Acid or fermented food for swine has been 

 highly recommended. Mr. Arthur Young, 

 whose authority amongst husliandmen is al- 

 most equal to that of the Pope v/ith Roman 

 Catholics, says " that the most [irofitablo meth- 

 od of converting corn of any kind into food for 

 hogs is to grind it into meal, and mi.\ this with 

 water in cisterns in the proportion of five bush- 

 els of meal to one hundred gallons of water, 

 stirring it well several times a dn}' for three 

 weeks in cold weather, or a fortnight in a war- 

 mer season, by which it will have fermented 

 well and become acid, till which it is not ready 

 (o give. The mixture should always be stirred 

 immediately before feeding, and two or three 

 cisterns should be kept fermenting in succes- 

 sion, that no necessity may occur of giving it 

 not duly prepared." Judge Petci-s, of Penn. 

 whose authority is, in our opinion, not inferior 

 to that of any man who ever wrote on agricul- 

 tural topics, siiys, in substance, that "sour food 

 is niiist grateful and alimentary to swine. One 

 gallon of sour wash goes farther than two ol 

 sweet." But 



An English work entitled " I'"armers' Calen- 

 dar," (author's name not given) declares that 

 " much has been said, and little understood, 

 about piirposelij souring food for hogs. It is not 

 that acidity can possibly tend to pinguefaction 

 [making fat] but it is found that pigs will read- 

 ily fatten upon aciil, or rather acescent food, a 

 sweetish tasie and glutinous quality succeeding 

 fermentation ; and that thetj zi-ill do so sfill more 

 readily tipon such as has never reached liic acid 

 state I kno-jo, and have seen in hundreds of instan- 

 ces, is a proof wanted ? How much mote, rea- 



dily do the country hogs feed upon sweet , 

 unlcrmented food than those of the starch-ho'f*^ 

 upon the fermented and sub-acid wash, howe 

 rich ? I say sub-acid, for did not starch-mak 

 run otf a great part of that which is really sc 

 they would kill instead of fatten their hogs.' 

 In order to reconcile these writers it will o 

 be necessary to advert to the different stage, 

 ordinary fermentation, and the products of ei 

 stage. The first stage of fermentation proda 

 sugar, and is called the saccharine fermentatl 

 The second stage developes alcohol, or 

 of wine, and is called the vinous fermentatijiS 

 The third do. produces vinegar, and is cat 

 the acid fermentation ; and the founii and 

 stage converts the matter fermenting int< 

 substance which is not only offensive but p 

 sonous, and is called the putrid fermenfati 

 Thus if you soak wheat or other farinacet 

 substance in water of a proper temperature 

 will tirst become sweet, and begin to sprout! 

 vegetate ; it will next afl'ord spirit or alcoJi ^ 

 continue the process the wash turns sour, 

 first slightly, and then more strongly acid 

 at last Ihe whole becomes putrid. It proba 

 contains most nourishment when it is sweet i' 

 but is valuable till very sour, when it is w« 

 little or nothing; and when the putrid fer_ 

 tation has rommcnced it is worse than noth 

 as food for any animal. The farmer then sh(^>( 

 give his wash to his pigs while it is yet sw 

 or but beginning to turn sour. 



rn 



thi 



(tj" ^be following will corroborate what has t 

 to:ort' brcii piibiishi-il in the pamphlet entitled " 

 marks on (lie Dangers and Duties of Sepulture," 

 I vir wed in our paper, vol. i, p. 394,) relative to 

 I viTy virulent nature of the poison which is piodiK 

 j by dead bodies in some stages of putrefaction, 

 ( serve as a caution against unnecessarily tampi 

 j with substances whicli are as injurious to our hi 

 jas they are offensive to our senses. 



] VOR THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



Saint Pierre, in his Studies of JVatare, vi 

 p. 211, first American Edition, in combai 

 some of the infidel philosophers on the su 

 of equivocal generation, says : " It is not 

 certain that corruption produces no one li 

 I body, but is fatal to all, especially to ll 

 which have blood, and chiefly to man. 

 j "No air is unwholesome, but where the 

 ' corruption, which, so far from conferring 

 I generates tubercles, inflames the eyes, dissoj 

 Ihe blood, and produces -.".n infinite numliel'i 

 diseases in most animals, which respire its e« 

 anations. 



"O;' all corruptions, Ihat of the human fle 

 is mon noxious. Of this a very singular instant 

 IS related by Garcilaso de la Vega,"in his h slor 

 of tilt civil wars of the Spaniards in the Imlie 

 Vol. I, part 2, Chap. 4,3. He observrs, fits 

 that the Indians of the Islands of Burlovenlf 

 poison their arrows, by plunging the poinW (I 

 them into dt'ad bodies ; and then ad'i.s, " fsinl 

 relate what I myself saw hippen in the ca 

 one of the quarters of the dead body of Ca^ 

 jal, which was exposed on the gr.>at roaif ( 

 Collosigu, to Ihe south of Cusco. We set oil4 

 walkirg one Tuesday, ten or twel-e schoolfel| 

 lows of us, all mongrels, that is, the progeny 

 Spanish men by Indian women, the oldest iioij 

 above twelve years of age. Having obser»('i 

 as we went aiong in the open coynlry, one ''1 



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