18U, 



NEW ENGLAND PARMER. 



269 



In fallowing the instructions of such men. Their 

 locks have whitened in the service ; and although 

 the energies of their muscles may falter, the energy 

 of their minds is ueimpaired. * 



April 22, 1854. 



For the JV«« K7ig-laud Farmer. 



COOKED AND UNCOOKED FOOD. 



Mr. Ckowx : — The communication from Mr. 

 Howe, in the iV. E. Fanner of 18th inst., is cer- 

 tainly an important one, inasmuch as the very ac- 

 curate and conclusive experiment w^ith uncooked 

 meal, for the feeding of sv.'ine, goes very far to 

 establish the question that it is better than cooked ; 

 a question which has been very much debated. 

 It contravenes the generally received opinions and 

 practice of most raisers of pork. • 



I wish Mr. Howe, er some other extensive far- 

 mer, would extend the experiment to the various 

 otlier articles, which are usually fed to swine. 

 The expense and labor of cooking food for swine, 

 as usually practised, is no small item in the cost, 

 more especially for small farmers. I shall never 

 believe, till I see some satisfactory experiment, that 

 the food for swine, or other stock, requires to be 

 cooked in order to be eaten by them, or that the 

 process of cooking imparts additional nutriment, 

 I should rather expect that the process of cook- 

 ing might dissipate, by evaporation, some of the 

 •essential properties of the articles cooked. 



The boiling or steaming of hay and straw, 

 '.vhich has been heretofore suggested and recom- 

 mended, seems to me to be a wild fancy. 



Shall we undertake to pamper the appetites of 

 our cows and horses with all the refinements of a 

 Fi'onch cook ? Man departs from the original in- 

 tentions of nature, by calling to his aid the vari- 

 ous processes of the culinary art. The more plain 

 and simple his food, the more perfect is man, in 

 •all the essential attiibutcs of his nature. Those 

 who indulge in the gratification of a pampered ap- 

 petite are not the most efficient members of the 

 community, and the direct tendency is to deprecia- 

 tion ; hence, the continued revolutions in the so- 

 cial relations of society — the lesser indulgent 

 classes go up while the more luxurious go down. 

 The rich cannot resist the temptation to ease and 

 indulgence which their riches give to them, and by 

 which they arc enervated and, consequently de- 

 scend in the scale of their social relations. 



I had written thus much before seeing the ar- 

 ticle from Mr. Ilolbrook, of Vermont, in your 

 last. Lie has given us a very valualjle communi- 

 cation, on the management and feeding of swine, 

 and of the amount of pork made by a bushel of 

 eooked Indian meal, which he thinks is better 

 than uncooked meal. This is at variance with the 

 experience of Mr. Howe, who made a pretty fair 

 experiment with five j>igs. 



As has been before said, docs the cooking add 

 anything to the material stufi"? 



1 do not know but swine or other stock might 

 eat a little more of some food, wlicn cooked, than 

 when not, or when mashed up with the more pal- 

 atable, might take some articles which they would 

 refuse when given alone. But then it becomes a 

 question whether those articles which would l)e 

 refused alone, afford much appropriate nourish- 

 ment. Tlic Author of nature has given them in- 

 stincts to discriminate between what is suitable 

 for their support and what is not. 



The farmers want an experiment made which 

 shall decide for them this question, because if 

 nothing is gained, the expense of Iwilers, fuel and 

 much labor will bo saved. 



I wisli Mr. Howe, Mr. Ilolbrook, or some oth- 

 er extensive raiser of pork, would institute a fair 

 and careful experiment, and give us small farmers 

 the benefit of it. 



So far as my experience has been, and the ex- 

 perience of many good farmers, whom I have con- 

 sulted, the practice of feeding swine with all the 

 common articles raised upon the farm, without 

 cooking, has been pursued with success. The 

 grains, most roots and fruits arc readily eaten, in 

 their natural 8tate. 



If there are some v/hieh swine refuse, it is pro^ 

 bable they are more suitable for some other kinds 

 of farm stock, and would not do swine much 

 good if they were forced to eat them. jk 



Topsfield, March 28, 1854. 



SETTING OUT CABBAGE, TOMATO, 

 AND OTHEE PLANTS. 



Last spring we saw a farmer setting out a hun- 

 dred cabbage plants in the following manner. The 

 plants were pulled up from the seed bed without 

 loosening the ground around them, and as this 

 was pretty compact, three-fourths of the fibrous 

 roots were broken off. He then made a round 

 hole with a stick about half an inch in diameter, 

 thrust in tlie plant, dropped in earth to fill up the 

 hole, packed it down, poured on a considerable 

 quantity of Avater, and then covered up the plants 

 with a burdock leaf te keep off the sun's rays, and 

 left them to grow as best they could. We reques- 

 ted the privilege of setting out twenty plants for 

 him, and proceeded thus : 



First, we went to the seed bed, and with a flat 

 stick loosened and lifted up a quantity of dirt a- 

 round the roots, taking care to break very few of 

 the most delicate fibres. We next went to the 

 cabbage ground, and with a hoe prepared a place 

 for each plant by mellowing and pulverising the 

 earth several inciies in diameter. We scooped out 

 a large hole with the hand, deep enough for a 

 plant, and set it in carefully, with considerable 

 loose earth still clinging to it. The roots were 

 left spread out just as they had grown, finely pul- 

 verised soil was then sprinkled in to fill up the 

 hole, and carefully pressed down around the plant. 

 We then added about half a pint of filthy water 

 from the swill-pail, and requested that the plants 

 sliould be lei't without any protecting covering. 

 Our farmer friend said lie could never spend so 

 much time with a few plants. But mark the re- 

 sult. 



During the latter part of summer we visited the 

 "cabbage patch," and found thatof the 20 plants, 

 one had been injured by a careless blow from the 

 hoe, and one had grown feebly, while seventeen of 

 them bore large, solid heads of cabbage. Of the 

 eighty other plants set out at the same time ia 

 the same soil, fifteen only had large heads, twen- 

 ty-nine bore heads of medium size, fourteen had 

 barely lived and were not worth harvesting, while 

 tAventy-two had not survived the transplanting. 



The next Iwst preferable method we know of to 

 set out cabbages is, to first grout them. — Aineican 

 Agriculture. 



