VOb. yXf. NO. 3. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



21 



these hearths, in t)ie course of a very few years, a 

 luxurious coat of grass made its appearance, when 

 all arnnnd in the vicinity scarcely a blade of grass 

 could be found, and what there was found out of 

 the coal hearlli, was sickly nnd dwarfish. 'I'his 

 was so well known, tli:it in the heat of summer, 

 when the pasture in other places was dried and 

 withered by the summer drought, it was a common 

 practice to drive the cattle to the •' coalings," as 

 they are called, sure that ^liey would there obtain 

 food. During the last autumn, business called me 

 into Harford county, in Maryland. While there, I 

 was surpris>'d at the exceedingly luxuriant growth 

 of a crop (if grain but lately seeded into a field, on 

 Deer creek, and also at the very peculiar appear- 

 ance of the soil. The soil upon which the grain 

 was growing had a remarkably dark appearance, 

 and appeared to be so mellow and friable as nearly 

 to bury the foot at every step, and althmigh it lay 

 very level, did not appear to the touch to be so; 

 not as the .'soil in the other fields around it on the 

 same level. My attention was excited by what I 

 saw, and I inquired if the field had not been cov- 

 ered with charcoal, and was told that it had been. 

 I inquired when it was done, and was told it had 

 been spread upon it more than twenty years ago ! 

 I then asked what was the general quality of the 

 crops raised upon it, and ! was told that they were 

 invariably fine, both as to quantity and quality. 

 The person who lived upon the property informed 

 me that he had repeatedly hauled the soil from tliat 

 field and spread it upon the surrounding fields, nnd 

 he could, for years, or in fact from the time he 

 spread it there to the present day, always see, by 

 the growth upon these places, exactly where he had 

 put it! 



I had for some time past had my attention di- 

 rected to the subject, but here I found it fully de- 

 veloped to my full satisfaction. 



When I returned home, I made it the subject of 

 conversation frequently with tlie farmers in our 

 neitrhborhood, and from one of them I learned that 

 when he lived in Chester county, Pa., with his fath- 

 er, a part of their farm became worn out and un- 

 productive. It was abandoned for several years, 

 and in the mean time many coal-pits had been 

 formed upon several of the old fields, by drawing 

 the wood there to burn into coal, that had been cut 

 •in the adjoining timber lands. After some time, 

 they again put those fields under tillage, and he 

 states that wherever a coal hearth had been left, 

 there the crop of grain and the growth of grass 

 was equal, if not superior, to that which grew upon 

 any of their most productive fields. Another case 

 of the application of charcoal I have found in this 

 neighborlMiid, was made by a gentleman in the 

 iron business to his meadow, near the coal house. 

 He had a large quantity of the coal that had be- 

 come too fine to be used in the furnace, and he 

 concluded, as the easiest way to dispose of it, to 

 haul it out and spread it upon the grass land. He 

 spread it late in the fall, and for many years he in- 

 formed me he observed the most astonishing effect 

 produced upon his yield of grass. The quantity 

 was nearly double, and the effect continued as 

 long as he owned the property, which was at least 

 ten years : so he informs me. 



From what I can see of its effect, where a large 

 quantity is left upon the ground, as for instance, in 

 the centre of the hearth, it takes a considerable 

 time for it to acquire a sufficient degree of mois- 

 ture to penetrate to the bottom, and until it has ac- 

 quired that degree of moisture, nothing will grow 



there. Around the outer edges of the circle where 

 it is thrown upon the ground, it is soon saturated 

 with moisture, and vegetation is soon facilitiitcd, 

 nnd goes on rapidly. I should judge from this, 

 that when about to be applied to land, the coal 

 should be ground fine, and then thoroughly wetted 

 and sown or spread over the surface of the soil. 

 From the circumstance of its being easily powder- 

 ed or mashed up, I should suppo-ie that the process 

 would be very easily effected by maki.ng a floor of 

 plank, say circular, and procuring a good sized 

 stone, to bo afhxed by a shaft to an ugright post, 

 and drawn over the coals. The cost of covering 

 an acre would be trifling, and if it produced no 

 other effect than that of forming a permanent vege- 

 table basis in the soil, for lime to act U|)on, it ap- 

 pears to me it Would well repay a greater amount 

 of labor and expense than would be necessary to 

 try it. 



I have just been made acquainted with another 

 result of the application of charcoal to arable land ; 

 that is, wherever charcoal has been applied, rust 

 ntver affects the growing crop of whiai. My friend 

 who has communicated this fact to me, states that 

 he has observed it particularly, and when the field 

 generally has been "struck with rust," as it is 

 called, those places where he had applied the char- 

 coal invariably escaped. 



J. H. HEPBURN. 



PROFIT OF SWINE. 

 The question of profit in keeping and fattening 

 swine, has been much discussed, and so much de- 

 pends on circumstances of age, breed, food, length 

 of time kept, and price in the market, that the 

 question must remain open. Mr Phinney gives it 

 as his opinion, that with Indian corn at 1 dollar 

 per bushel, and potatoes at .33 cents, and the price 

 of pork 12 cents, they may be fatted to a profit. 

 In his experience, he says, four quarts of Indian 

 or barley meal with an equal quantity of apples, 

 pumpkins, potatoes or roots cooked, will give two 

 pounds of pork. 



A small example of fatting swine in Medway, 

 Norfolk county, which came under my notice, 

 seems worth recording, because an exact account 

 of their cost was kept. The owner was a mechan- 

 ic, and bought every article of their feed, not even 

 keeping a cow. His two hogs when killed weigh- 

 ed, one 420 lbs. — one 382 lbs., and pork was then 

 worth V2 cents per lb. Value when dressed, $90 24. 

 They were killed at 14 months old. They were 

 bought in November and killed in the December of 

 the next year. They were kept in the sty the 

 whole time ; were fed three limes a day with 

 weeds, corn and potatoes. The potatoes were 

 boiled and the Indian meal mixed with them into 

 a mash. They were fed exclusively., on corn one 

 week before being killed. They did as well in 

 winter as in summer. Salt was frequently given 

 to them in their swill. The price of corn bought 

 for them was 117 cents to 136 cents, or an average 

 of 130 cents per bushel. Potatoes were 30 cts. 

 per bushel. The whole cost of the hogs when fat- 

 ted was $02, including the price of purchase, or 

 7.8 cts. per lb. 



I shall here subjoin some careful experiments 

 made by myself a few years since in relation to 

 this subject. 



Experiment]. — Two hogs about one year old ; 

 one of them a barrow in very good condition; the 

 other a barrow recently gelded and in ordinary con 

 dition, were put up to be fed exclusively upon In 



dian hasty pudding, or Indian meal boiled with wa- 

 ter. We began feeding them the first of March 

 18:?1, and weighed them ngain on the nineteenth 

 of the some mouth. In the 18 days they consum- 

 ed six bushels of Indian meal. They were offered 

 cold water to drink, but did nut incline to lake any. 



The result — 

 No. 1 weighed on the 1st March, 233 lbs. 



10th " 209 



Gain, 36 



No. 2 (recently gelded) weighed on 1st Mar. 190 

 19th " 247 



Gain, 57 

 The gain of the two was 93 lbs. in 18 days. The 

 quantity of meal consumed by them was 10 quarts 

 per day to the two. We allow 30 quarts to a bush- 

 el, deducting two for grinding. The price of com 

 at the time was 70 cents per bushel. The expense 

 of the increased weight is 4.5 cents per lb. 



Experiment 3. — No. 2, mentioned above, weighed 

 On 23d March, 253 lbs. 



Do. 30th April, 312 



In 38 days, gain, 59 lbs. 



No. 3, a shoat purchased from a drove, weighed 



On 2Sth March, 100 lbs. 



Do. on 30th April, 151 



Gain in 33 days, 51 lbs. 

 This is a fraction over 1 lb. 8 oz. per day each. 



In this case their food was exclusively boiled 

 pstatoes mashed with Indian meal. The exact 

 amount consumed not ascertained, but fed as freely 

 as they would bear. 



Experiment 3. — The two last named hogs were 

 for the next 20 days put upon Indian hasty pudding 

 exclusively, with the following result: 



No. 2 weighed on 30th April, 312 lbs. 



« on 20th May, 382 



Gain in 20 days, 70 lbs. 

 No. 3 weighed on 30th April, 151 



" " on 20th May, 185 



Gain in 20 days, 34 lbs. 



The two in the above named WO days, consum- 

 ed four and one half bushels of meal, cooked as 

 above. Meal 78 cents per bushel. Gain of the 

 two, 104 lbs. in 20 days. 



In the fourth experiment, sundry swine were fed 

 with meal and potatoes, washed and mashed. In 

 52 days they gained asfollons : one 68 lbs., anoth- 

 er 48, another 86. Two others in 24 days, gained, 

 one 55 lbs., the other 25. 



[Another experiment with Indian hasty pudding 

 was made, and the gain was large. We have not 

 room for the details.] 



The results ol" the experiments "seem to demon- 

 strate the great advantage of cooked food, both as 

 it respects its increase of bulk and the improve- 

 ment of its nutritive properties. Whether it would 

 apply to those substances whose bulk is not in- 

 creased by cooking, equally as to Indian meal and 

 the like, is a matter which experiments only can 

 determine. In an experiment recently made, of 

 giving swine raw meal mixed with water, I have 

 found a falling off in their gain of nearly one half, 

 compared with giving their food cooked. — Abridged 

 from Caiman's Fourth Report. 



