No. 10. 



To Pork Raisers. — Manure. — Large Chests, ^-c. 



301 



seldom found, and generally too expensive 

 when they are. 



Your obedient servant, 



Junius Smith. 

 Hon. H. L. Ellsworth. 



Important to Pork Raisers. — There 

 is an increasing demand in the eastern 

 markets for pork and bacon from young 

 hogs, and of thinner quality than formerly; 

 and farmers are beginning to learn that 

 by selecting a good thrifty breed, and ma- 

 naging them properly, they can raise hogs 

 of 200 to 250 lbs. weight at nine or ten 

 months old, and at a saving of one-third 

 to one-half the expense over the old system 

 of wintering store hogs, and slaughtering 

 them at 18 or 20 months old. To practice 

 this system the pigs should come in winter 

 or early in spring; and special care must be 

 taken to have them kept thriving during 

 their whole lives ; for if they become stunted 

 when young, it is impossible to recover them 

 in time for slaughtering till the next year. — 

 Ohio Cultivator. 



Manure. — It is really surprising to see 

 what a large quantity may be collected and 

 made from a very small number of cattle. 

 If a barn yard were cleared once a week 

 and transferred to the compost Jieap, which 

 should be made a save-all of every thing that 

 ever had vegetable or animal life, a large 

 heap is soon made with mud, sod from the 

 sides of the roads, and the deposit of ditches, 

 which may be thrown over, and moved after 

 rains before the land is put to work. The 

 great process of nature is to reproduce, and 

 we may have this reproduction in grain, fruit 

 or vegetables. All we have to do is to pre- 

 pare the earth, sow or plant, and cultivate, 

 and a bountiful Providence does the rest. — 

 Farmer's Monthly Visitor. 



Gypsum for Stables. — The London Ag- 

 ricultural Gazette says: "In our concern, 

 where we have a great number of horses, 

 we use gypsum in our stables, strewing it 

 on the floor, which arrests the ammonia as 

 it is formed, and thereby not only helps to 

 preserve a most valuable fertilizer, but also 

 renders the stable much more wholesome 

 for the horses. If, in the hot stables that 

 are sometimes met with at inns, where the 

 air is so charged with ammoniacal vapors, 

 that when you enter your eyes are affected, 

 a little gypsum were strewed on the floor 

 every day, all that offensive smell would be 

 done away, and the stable be much more 

 healthy for its inhabitants." 



Large Chests. 



Horses that are round, or " barrel-chested," 

 are invariably more muscular and enduring 

 than those of the opposite kind. Scientific 

 sportsmen are, in a great measure, guided in 

 their opinion of a horse's racing qualifica- 

 tions by his girth just behind his shoulders; 

 by this test, a well-known jockey foretold the 

 reputation and prowess of the celebrated 

 racer "Plenipotentiary," almost from the 

 period of his birth. Cattle-dealers and butch- 

 ers, ill like manner, judge by the chests and 

 shoulders of cows and pigs what amount of 

 fat they arc likely to gain in the process of 

 feeding. All animals that have large lunsrs 

 are remarkable for the vigour of tiieir appe- 

 tite, and for the facility with which they ap- 

 propriate their nutriment; such animals will 

 feed upon the coarsest hay and straw, whilst 

 their less fortunately constructed companions 

 are fattened by no kind of food. An amusing 

 anecdote is related of a simpleton, who, in 

 trying to sell his horse, declared that"/Ae 

 animaVs eating was a mere nothing.^' The 

 intelligence would, contrary to intention, 

 have sufficed to ruin the prospect of sale, but 

 that the buyer, with a rare discrimination, 

 inferred from the horse's chest that the ca- 

 pacity of his appetite had been unwittingly 

 misstated. He bought him on the hazard of 

 an opinion, and had no reason to repent of 

 his judgment. — Medical Times. 



Subsoil Ploughs. — In many soils, not 

 otherwise rich enough for corn, it would be 

 a good practice to make a furrow six inches 

 deep in the fall, with a common plough ; then 

 let a subsoil plough run in this furrow ten or 

 twelve inches more; and it would be still 

 better to put cornstalks and other manure in 

 this trench, and listed in when thoroughly 

 wet, with a small plough or hoe; the land to 

 remain in this state till planting time. The 

 subsoil plough is very valuable ; by its use 

 the soil will be less wet in great rains, and 

 more moist in great drought. Where the sub- 

 soil is used, in comparison with only the 

 common plough, the yield will be fifty per 

 cent, more, and the crop in dry weather al- 

 ways green. The subsoil plough has dou- 

 bled and frequently trebled the crops. — 

 Farmer and Gardener. 



To Destroy Insects on Plants. — Tie up 

 some flowers of sulphur in a piece of muslin 

 or fine linen, and with this the leaves of 

 young shoots of plants should be dusted ; or 

 it may be thrown on them by means of a 

 common swansdown puff, or even by a dredg- 

 ing-box. — Peterson's Magazine. 



