PRACTICAL FARMER. 



101 



npricultural improvements, sliali not llicir exnm|)l(! 

 stimulate us to renewed and increased exertions to 

 stimulate all riassea of our peep'e to live their 

 countenance, and lend their co-opcraiion, in the 

 adoption of such measures as shall render these 

 anniversaries more interesting and useful, and in- 

 duce all to f(!el that strong individual as \v(;ll as 

 combined efforts are necessary to carr^ into com- 

 plete effect the great and useful objects for which 

 the society was orifriuated. 



In behalf of the Committee, 

 Oct. 19, 1836. EDWARD DICKINSON. 



The Thames I'unnel. — It is now no longer 

 a matter of doubt wliether this wonderful imder- 

 taking will be completed. Science and |;erse- 

 verance have triumphed over all difficulties, and 

 we may now expect, with well foimed confidence 



that it will not Itc Irrng trtrA-i^ th" pUtHlC " Will He 



enabled to go into the tunnel at Rotherhithe and 

 come out at \Va[iping." It a|)j ears that more 

 than TOO o it of the whole 1300 feet have been 

 ompleted ; that the work is now proceeding at 

 ^e rate o( 4 1-2 feet per week, and that this 

 ^\"kly rate will soon be increased to 8 or 9 feet. 

 *^en it is considered that the stu[)endous shield 

 ^''^Hi Mi })ru(iel hf.s constructed to obviate the 

 difl]rs](igg foniierly encountered, weijrlis no less 

 than I'O tons, and is pnipclled under the be<l of the 

 riiamo^ sustaining a pressure of 8>.00 tons, we 

 must ref,y,| ii,i.s „s a ra; id progress. But that 

 ^vhich pijk^cs the skill of the engineer in the moKt 

 ♦•(uisj)icii(.u, |)()i!it of view, is the fact that llie 

 materia! tlir<su(/li which the shield is now pro- 

 ceeding with til.; must perfect safety, is in a send 

 fluid state. 



Apples for fattening Hogs. ; — Although 

 the attention of our readers has been before called 

 to this subject, we believe its 'im[)ortance is too 

 liltle appreciated generally; and as the present is 

 the season for action, we sli^ll Iny a few fai-ts be- 

 foro tliom, t.huwing the advantages of euijiloying 

 apples as food for fattening liogs, ovt^-r f>th"f snh. 

 stances. VN e shall first endeavor to show that 

 they are a valuable kind of food, and secondly, 

 liiat they are a cheap one. 



First, with regard to their va-liie. A corres- 

 pondent of the Elaine Fanner in 1834 made the 

 lollowing experiu'ent. jl« commenced feeding 

 his hogs on apjdes in August. A pig four UMinilis 

 old and weighing 95 pounds, was fed 18 days as 

 follows: — first, two busheis of sour app es, 

 l>niled with six quarts of oats and pea meal, weigh- 

 ing four and a half j)oiind.s were given him. At 



f!ie end of six days he had gainetl six pounds. 



lie was then kef)t six days on the same quantiiy 

 of boiled sweet apples and meal, at the end of 

 wliich time he had gained six >)ounds more. He 



was next fed on an equal quantity of boiled pota^ 

 toes and meal, and at the end of six days he liad 

 gained only five pounds. Here the superiority of 

 both sweet and sour apples over potatoes was 

 decisively shown. 



A correspondent of this paper at Lockport, in 

 a communication last winter, states that he shut 

 up seven hogs about fourteen months old on the 

 first ff October; they were in poor condition, 

 and estimated to weigh about 150 lbs. each, and 

 worth in the market 12 1-2 cents per pound. — ■ 

 They were fed fifty days on apples, mostly sour, 

 boiled with a small quantity of water, with the 

 addition ef a bushel of bran and a i)int of salt, to 

 three bushels of apjtles. At the end of fifiy 

 days they were fed witli twelve and a half bush- 

 els of soft corn in the ear, and afterwr.rds slaugh- 

 tered. The average weight of each was 272 

 [lomirts. Estimaiing the apples at 25 cents a 

 bushel, the bran at 6 cents, and corn at 62 1-2 

 cents, the whole expense was $77,55, and the 

 pork at $6,12 1-2 per cwt. $116, leaving a clear 

 [)r( fit of $41,45. See whole experiment detailed, 

 in Genesee Farmer, current volume, p. 61. 



These experiments it will be observed, were 

 with cooked apples. 'J'jie practice has also suc- 

 ceeded when they have been fed in a raw state ; 

 tiiough the latter is not as profitable, except on a 

 very small scale, when the trouble and expense 

 of cooking would be comparatively greater. In 

 tJie following experiments, the apples were given 

 uncooked. A correspondent in Onondaga county 

 turned thirty hogs and from thirty to forty shoats 

 and pigs in an orchard of 400 trees about the 

 15th of September and they remained there until 

 the latter part of November when they were 

 slaughtered, with the exception of twelve dollars 

 worth sold alive, and about a dozen retained as 

 store pigs. They yielded about 5.450 lbs. of first 

 rate pork, fattened on apples wholly, without any 

 grain. Ihis was the fourth experiment of the 

 kind made by the writer, all of which were at- 

 tended with complete succeess. 



In the 5th volume, page 324, nf the Genesee 

 Farmer, S. P. Rhoades of Skaneateles says, « A 

 friend from Massachusetts informs nie that he 

 sliut up a hog by himself, and fed him entirely on 

 api)les and water, last fall, and that he became 

 very fat, was well filled, and the pork was hard 

 and sweet as that fed on corn." He also states 

 that when turned into an orchard where there are 

 both sweet and sour apples, hogs will eat about 

 as much of one as of the other. 



In the Brattleborough Messenger, a correspon- 

 flont says, "A man in Guilford, conversing on this 

 subject, said to me, ' There is a hog that will 

 weigh over two hundred ; I brought him home 

 ill July on my back. I have given it nothing but 

 apples, and a little slop for drink." 



