NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



395 



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GROUP OF CHINESE PIGS. 



We insert the above cut more as a matter of cu- 

 riosity, than with any desire to recommend this, 

 breed. There are two distinct varieties, the white 

 and the black; both fatten readily, but from their 

 diminutive size, attain no great v;eight. They are 

 small in limb, round in body, short in the head, 

 wide in the cheek, and high in the chine; covered 

 with very fine bristles growing from an exceeding- 

 ly llrin skin; and not particularly symmetrical, for, 

 when fat, the head is so buried in the neck that 

 little more than the tip of the snout is visible. The 

 pure Chinese hog is too delicate and susceptible of 

 cold ever to become a really profitable animal in 

 this country; it is difficult to rear, and the sows 

 are not good nurses; but one or two judicious cross- 

 es have in a manner naturalized them. 



This breed will fatten readily, and on a compa- 

 ratively small quantity of food; and the flesh is ex- 

 ceedingly delicate, but does not make bacon, and 

 is often too fat and oily to be generally esteemed 

 as pork. They are chiefly kept by those who rear 

 sucking pigs fur the market, as they make excel- 

 lent roasters at three weeks or a month old. Some 

 authors point out five, some seven varieties of the 

 Chinese breed, but those are doubtless the results 

 of different crosses with our native kinds. The 

 above cut, with several others purchased expressly 

 for our columns, were taken from the living origi- 

 nals for the International Magazine, published at 

 New York. 



New History of Boston. — Messrs. Little & 

 Brown have in press a "Municipal History of 

 Boston," from 1630 to the present time, by Hon. 

 Josiah Quincy. This is a work much needed, and 

 the name of the author is a guaranty that it will be 

 well executed. 



PACKING APPLES FOR FOREIGN 

 MARKETS. 



As this is about the time v, l.en :nost of the ap- 

 ples are prepared for shiiniient to foreign markets, 

 it may be well to say a few words on the subject. 

 No care, however, in packing for transportation, 

 will preserve the fruit unless it has been properly 

 gathered in the first place. Premising, then, that 

 the apples have been piopprly collected and pre- 

 served, the business of packing them is not a diffi- 

 cult one, so that they may be transported any dis- 

 tance, by still continuing to them the same care 

 which they have had from the beginning. 



Flour barrels are as cheap and convenient as any 

 thing for them. They should be perfectly clean, 

 sweet and tight. The apples should be assorted, 

 rejecting all that are wormy, bruised, or mis-shap- 

 en, leaving only such as are hard, good sized, 

 and handsomely shaped, as every one that is defi- 

 cient in these qualities operates as a discount upon 

 all the rest, when opened in a foreign market. — 

 Place some soft substance on the bottom of the 

 barrel, say cheap cotton or soft paper, and then 

 after wiping the apples, roll them in dry paper and 

 place them in layers with the stem end up, until 

 the surface is covered, and so closely that they can- 

 not jostle upon being moved with the barrel. Cover 

 these with the cotton or paper, and proceed in this 

 manner until the barrel is full. The barrel must 

 be filled so full as to require the head to be pressed 

 gently down ; this will prevent all iTiotion amono 

 the apples themselves, while the barrel is conveyed 

 from place to place We practice a similar nicde 

 to keep our apples for family use, and find it a 

 good one. It is but a little labor to wrap a barrel 

 of good-sized apples in paper, and where old news- 

 papers are abundant, the expense is very trifling. 



Apples prepared in this manner will keep well 



