432 



FARMERS' REGISTER— FATTENING HOGS. 



the operalion of this substance. I took four por- 

 tions of the same soil; with one I mixed tt',, of its 

 ■Nveis^ht of causlic niai^ncsia, with another I mixed 

 the same quantity of magnesia and a proportion 

 of a lat decomposing peat equal to one-fourth of 

 the weiglit of tlie soil. One j)ortion ol soil re- 

 mained in its natural state ; and another was mix- 

 ed with peat without magnesia. The mixtures 

 were made in December 1806 ; and in April 1807, 

 barley was sown in all of them. It grew very 

 well in the pure soil, but better in the soil contain- 

 ing the magnesia and peat ; and nearly as well in 

 the soil containing peat- alone : but in the soil con- 

 taining the magnesia alone, it rose very I'eeble, and 

 looked yellow and sickly. 



I repeated this experiment in the summer of 

 1810 with similar results ; and I found that the 

 magnesia in the soil mixed with peat became 

 strongly effervescent, whilst Ihe portion in the un- 

 mixed soil gave carbonic acid in much smaller 

 quantities. In the one case the magnesia had as- 

 sisted in the formation of a manure, and had be- 

 come mild ; in the other case it had acted as a 

 poison. 



It is obvious, from what has been said, that lime 

 from the magnesian limestone may be applied in 

 large quantities to peats; and that where lands 

 have been injured by the application of loo large 

 a quantity of magnesian lime, peat will be a proper 

 and elficient remedy. 



I mentioned that magnesian limestones effer- 

 vesced little when plunged into an acid. A sim- 

 ple test of magnesia in a limestone is this circum- 

 stance, and its rendering diluted nitric acidbr aqua 

 forlis milky. 



From (he analysis of Mr. Tennant, it appears 

 that the magnesian limestones contain from 

 20.3 to 22.5 magnesia. 

 29.5 to 31.7 lime. 

 47.2 carbonic acid. 

 0.8 clay and oxide of iron. 



Magnesian limestones are usually colored brown 

 or pale yellow. They are found in Somersetshire, 

 Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Shropshire, Durham 

 and Yorkshire. I have never met with any in 

 other counties in England ; but they abound in 

 many parts of Ireland, particularly near Belfast. 



For the Farmers' Register. 

 ANOTHER WAY OF FATTENING MOGS. 



It has been often said of the Dutch farmers in 

 the Stale of New York, and of the German farmers 

 of Pennsylvania, that in many very important 

 branches of their business, they indolently follow, 

 from generation to generation, those imperfect 

 customs and ways of their forefathers ; which 

 grew out of that rude state of things, belonging 

 to the settlement of an interminable wilderness, 

 and which were adopted from the necessity of the 

 case. I think the extraordinary manner in which 

 hogs are permitted to run at large in Virginia, is 

 as strong an instance of veneration for ancient cus- 

 toms, as can be produced in the more Northerly 

 States. Certainly as flir as that laudable feeling 

 has any thing to do with the matter, the ancient 

 dominion maintains its reputation well, for the ob- 

 servation is not united to particular localities, but 

 appears to apply to every part of the State, east 

 of the mountains. 



The custom of letting sows pig in the woods. 



and then suffering them to get a precarious living 

 there li^r the next twenty months, grew out of the 

 necessity of the thing, when the tirst settlements 

 were made. The planters in those times had con- 

 stantly to provide against dangers which even 

 menaced their lives. It would be unreasonable to 

 suppose that the sort of management and economy 

 of means which are successfully practised in our 

 days, could be carried by such men into the de- 

 tails of their farming affairs. They were too 

 much engrossed with keeping ihe coiuitry for their 

 jiosterity. Eacon, however, they could not well 

 do without, and it was the least disadvantageous 

 way to procure it, to let the hogs run at large and 

 feed upon the mast, which sometimes, but not every 

 year, is very plentiful. Yet even this advantage 

 was purchased very dearly. It we look back to 

 the various legislative enactments on the subject 

 of these animals, we can form to ourselves some 

 idea — far short of the truth I imagine — of the 

 anxiety, the trouble, the loss of time and temper, 

 the quarrels, the occasional loss of life, which pro- 

 duced these enactments. In the Statutes at Large, 

 it ajipears, in 1632, only twenty -six years after the 

 first settlement of Virginia, no man Avas allowed 

 to kill a hog except on his own plantation. This 

 enactment no doubt was suggested by the misun- 

 derstandings of the planters. In 1642, any man 

 killing hogs on his own land, was obliged to call 

 in two witnesses to ascertain that the hogs were 

 unmarked. Any man convicted of killing a tame 

 hog, not his own, was to " suffer as a felon." This 

 punishment was afterwards commuted to a fine to 

 lie paid to the owner of the hog, of one thousand 

 jx)unds of tobacco, and another thousand pounds to 

 the informer. In case of inability to pay, the 

 offender was to serve the owner of the hog one year, 

 and the informer another year. And any person 

 bringing home a hog or hogs without ears, was to 

 be proceeded against as a hog stealer.* In 1674, 

 the Indians were ordered to put such a mark on 

 their hogs, as the county courts should direct ; and 

 that Indian proof was in future to be good against 

 Indians, to convict them on the act against hog 

 stealing. In 1679, these laws not being sufficient, 

 it was enacted that any one taken a third time 

 stealing hogs, should be tried by the laws of En- 

 gland, as in case of felony. 



We are now almost in the middle of the nine- 

 teenth century ; every man who has got a home, 

 can live under his own vine and fig-tree, secure in 

 his possessions, fearing no violence, and not under 

 the necessity of intending any to others ; still the 

 sows pig in the woods, still the unhapp}- shoats 

 that have survived one winter, are running, three 

 quarters legged, up and down the woods hunting 

 and screaming for the mast thai did not happen to 

 grow this year ; some with their ears notched on 

 one side, some on both, some a quarter clipped off, 

 some half, some without ears as if they had stood 

 in the pillory. Then comes November, that hog 

 trotting month, to the small farmer. 



" Have you seen my old white sow.^" 



* In 1666, it was enacted that if any Indian crossed 

 the bounds of Henrico county, after notice given of the 

 establishing of the bounds, " it shall be lawful for any 

 Englishman to kill such Indian or Indians so transgress- 

 ing." Thus an Indian looking for his hogs over those 

 hounds, might be killed according to law. This law was 

 not passed in relation to hogs, but private murders com- 

 mitted on the English. 



