FARMERS' REGISTER— FATTENING HOGS. 



433 



" I can't say I have." 



" Well, they telled me slie was seen at your 

 place about harvest time." 



" Why there was a strange sow rooting in my 

 sweet potatoes in August: what marks had slie.'"' 

 " Her left ear rotted off last winter, and she had 

 a considerable gash in the right one." 



" Ah, I guess that was not your sow then, for 

 this had lost both her ears, and had seven shoats, 

 mighty bad varmint all of them for squeezing 

 through the rails." 



" Well then that was my sow, for when she lost 

 her left ear, she looked so like Jim Carpenter's, 

 that I cut her 'tother ear off too in March last, 

 when she had six good shoats and a runt with 

 her." 



"Well, I don't know where she is, I know 

 nothing about your hogs. Here, Paul," (calling 

 his black man) " have you seen Mr. Smith's 

 hogs .'" 



" No masser, I nebber see him since we turn 

 him out of 'tatoe patch." 



Now Paul being a leading man in the church, 

 Mr. Smith had nothing left for it but to believe 

 him ; and as soon as his master went to the house, 

 having a high opinion of Paul's stock of veracity, 

 he thought he would purchase some of him, and 

 taking him to the edge of tlie woods, he said 

 " Paul, I'll believe what you say, and here's a quar- 

 ter if you'll tell the truth. Where's the hogs 

 now.' I'll never say you told me." 



" Well den massa, de faC is, de sow and de runt, 

 is in de old field by de branch at Mr. Jinkins'. 

 I seed em day before yesterday. But where de 

 oder shntes is, dat is unpossummel to tell." 

 " Will you help me to drive 'em home.'" 

 " It an't not possummcl to drive neider of em, 

 dat is de fac masser — lor de runt hav lost bote de 

 fore feet, and old sow have he leg broke." " Well 

 now who the devil has done this.'" 



" I think he is possumniel masser, somebody 

 fire buckshot at em. Old sow masser and all de 

 shotes was so mischievous, and thin, and so hun- 

 gry, ere is no fence to stand 'em. By goly, I neb- 

 ber see de like, he turn him on his side, and 

 squeeze him trough de fence jis as a par of tongs." 

 " You're an infernal set of devils as ever lived. 

 I was told that you and your master had shot three 

 of the shoats, and had sold their carcases to a wa- 

 goner that was going along. But I'll sarve you 

 all properly for this." 



This is no sketch from fancy, but a relation of 

 what occurred between neighbors this fall, and 

 part of the dialogue took place in presence of the 

 writer of this paper. 



Then the planter with his large family of ne- 

 groes to sustain. He, to be sure, gives his shoat 

 something to eat the first winter; but it is waste- 

 fully done. Corn is thrown to them in the ear, 

 and most of it is swallowed uncracked, and is 

 never digested. Many of them, however, are 

 kept alive, and though thin enough, they count 

 for hogs. It would be bad policy to turn them 

 into the woods in good order. The negroes are 

 very apt to take a severe tilhe of them. But what 

 trouble, what loss has the planter to encounter be- 

 fore his pork is killed, and then what sort of hogs 

 does he put up for bacon .' Miserable things, weigh- 

 ing 120 to 140 lbs. How long does his raised ba- 

 con last.' How many hundred dollars have too 

 many of the large planters to pay for purchased 

 Vol. 1—56 



bacon to keep his gangs with .' Is it not possible 

 for him to raise his own bacon, and save all tliis 

 money.' Is it not a reproach that all this should 

 be so, in a country where the soil and the climate 

 are so favorable to the production of Indian corn, 

 that it may be considered the staple commodity, 

 from which another great staple miglit be made 

 for exportation — pork. 



Although what is now about to be stated, may 

 be considered by some readers as a gasconade, 

 the writer will notwithstanding close this paper 

 by communicating another icay of fattening hogs, 

 which any one can imitate, and every one can suc- 

 ceed in if he chooses to try the experiment. He 

 is not going to propose an experiment, he is going 

 to narrate a method he has often seen practised, 

 and often witnessed the success of. It must be 

 remarked that the breed of hogs and cows neces- 

 sary to the success of this process, is not that which 

 offends the eye of every man accustomed to good 

 stock, and of which too much is seen in Virginia, 

 The hogs may be of that mixture of the Chinese 

 and grass breed, so abundantly found in the State 

 of New York ; and the cows must not be starved 

 neglected animals, hardly alive when the spring 

 opens, and of which it takes seven to give six 

 quarts of milk. There are good cows in Virginia, 

 and they only require to be kept up in hard weather, 

 and well kept through the year, to keep tlieir own- 

 ers. Such cows ought to give twelve quarts of 

 milk a day each. 



No hog should run loose, the styes should be 

 convenient, warm, and easy to clean out. Only 

 one sow in a stye large enougli to contain eight or 

 nine well grown animals. It should be contrived 

 that the sows pig about the lime the calves are 

 taken from their mothers, or not later at any rate 

 than the cows calve. Every sow about to pig 

 must be well fed three times a day, with coarse 

 meal, potatoes, garbage, &c. mixed up in the 

 swine tub: they will then have plenty of milk 

 for their pigs. Have your inferior and other grain, 

 such as corn and rye, ground coarsely in sulticient 

 quantities, and put into one or more hogsheads 

 mixed with water, and stirred well ; if it is a little 

 sour the better. As soon as your pigs begin to 

 grow and drink at the trough, give them a little of 

 this mush mixed with new milk, and increase the 

 quantity as they grow, until you give them every 

 day as much as they seem to require. To be able 

 to do this, you must have three or four sj)are cows, 

 the whole of whose milk for the first ten weeks 

 may be given to the pigs. When the sow finds 

 the pigs strong and troublesome, she will fight 

 them off; it is best then to take her off, and put 

 the so\\s in a stye by themselves. If )ou wish to 

 fatten them and change your sows, or breed the 

 next year from favorite sow pigs, feed them out of 

 the hogshead. Swine fatten much faster in warm 

 weather, and do not eat much when they are taking 

 on fat. A stout sow, one of those deep bodied and 

 short legged animals, will rai.se, if well fed, eight 

 pigs. Pigs thus treated, which have been pigged 

 about the 25th of March, will at Christmas, when 

 at nine months old, average four hundred pounds 

 weight each; and pork of this kind will fetch the 

 very liest price to put up for mess pork, perhaps 

 double what you have to pay for such as it may be 

 preferred to consume on the plantation. The 

 writer of this paper rejwafs that he has seen this 

 done for many years in succession : once he saw a 



