THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



139 



their daily Inisiness to root and champ the fresh 

 black mud that is thrown to them. And it is as 

 much tlio business of the workmen to supply 

 and take out of the pens, as it is periodically to 

 milk the cows, or to sow and hoe for the crops. 



WORKING HOGS. 



Mr. Phinney's present number of working 

 hogs is about seventy-tive : he says lie cannot 

 afford to keep a number beyond this while Indian 

 corn costs a dollar ii bushel, and pork sells lor 

 only six cents. When pork sold for eigjbt, ten, 

 and twelve cents the pound, he did well, even 

 when he bad to purchase a portion of food for 

 the keeiiiiie, to keep as liigh as the number of 

 one hundred and fifty. He has accumulated by 

 their means as many as five hundred full loads 

 of the best of manure in a year ; and he lias 

 made sales of pork to the amount of between 

 two and three thousand dollars in a season. By 

 great attention and expense he lias also succeed- 

 ed in rearing a breed of hoifs we think a little 

 better tliaii that of our friends, the Shakers, at 

 Canterbury. His whole herd ol'swine are of ihe 

 Berks'iire blood of the latest and best importa- 

 tions. He has engrafted this blood upon another 

 imported breed, which he has named the Mack- 

 ey ; and in some instances mixed both with an- 

 other breed from the far east, which he calls the 

 Mocha. The Mackey breed he obtained from 

 a ship ca))tajn of that name, well known as sail- 

 ing out of Boston, who went to the bottom with 

 his whole ship's crew in the liurricane.s of last 

 March, about the time of the loss of the .steamer 

 President. This breed of hogs happily blends 

 the mild dispositions broad backs, and full 

 haras of the Berkshire bio( d with the long bod- 

 ies and deep flanks in \\ !!!■•!■ \\:'-\ wpvp deficient: 

 in short, by the iiiixtiiir ! : ■ '; , I ;rfd which 



gains aijil I'atteiis on till- I , !,iii\ of Ibod, 



and which is of sutfici: 111 ;.:i,;i. 1;, |i,-iforni all 

 the labor which any reasoiialile ni.-in may require 

 of hogs. In the admixture of these bieeds it is 

 curious to perceive the red color of the original 

 Berkshire now and then breaking out in a single 

 individual of the litter, while others are pure 

 white, some nearly black, and .some mixed with 

 spots of black in a red or white ground. Mr., 

 Phinne)', within the last six or eight years, has 

 furnished many breedei's to be sent into different 

 parts of the country. For these he has received 

 prices in jiairs, when young, from ten to twenty 

 and more dollars. Persons who have obtained 

 this breed of hogs at a cost when brought home 

 as high as thirty dollars the pair, have found 

 themselves the ultimate gainers; as the lessened 

 expense of keeping and the better growth of the 

 improved breed would in a short time compen- 

 sate all. 



Besides the confined pens, Mr. Phinney has 

 a large yard in which from twenty to fifty hogs 

 of the ciifi'erent sizes and ages, ti-om the great 

 black Berkshire boar of eight hundred pounds, 

 to the smalle.st squeaker, congregate, and work 

 together up to their bellies in the mud and other 

 material with which they are constantly kept sup- 

 plied: at this season the larger drove were let 

 into a field of lucerne, with wliich ftlr. P. had 

 tried an experiment, convincing him that it could 

 not be made a jirofitable article of cultivation, 

 and which he was about to plough up : the fat 

 swine were gaining nearly their whole living 

 from the roots of the lucerne, wliicdi such of our 

 readers as are not acquainted with it will under- 

 stand to be a coarse siiecies of clover, that in 

 Europe is used extensively for soiling or summer 

 feeding cattle, jirodueing several crops from the 

 same root in one season. 



IMPROVED BREEDS OF AMMALS. 



To improve bis breeds of animals, Mr. Phin- 

 ney has been in the habit of paying fancy prices, 

 hundreds of dollars for a bull or cow, iuid still 

 higher prices for the better breed of horns. In 

 his pasture was a Morgan mare with a colt by 

 her side, which had been bniiglit and sold as liigii 

 as @500, and which lasi canic to him from the 

 Hon. H. G. Olis, of Bi>sioii. \i Ijo b.-id grown too 

 infirm to be i)leased with tin' iiuiek travel of a 

 beast that needed hard holding up rather than 

 hard apidication of the whip, at the price of 

 $350. This edit was"ber first foal : ten miles an 

 hour, without sweat or puffing, or the break of 

 lireath, was the usual travel of the niarr. To a 

 casual observer, unacq<iainted with the fine points 

 of a horse, as we admit our.splves practically to 

 be, the mure, as she stood a few rods distant, in 



the pasture, might be considered to be worth 50 

 or $75. 



Mr. Phinucy has a herd of fine cowg, the milk 

 of which is daily sent to Boston market : the 

 income of the twenty-four cows from the spare 

 milk is from five to eight dollars a day, according 

 with the season of feed, or the number giving 

 milk: in the severe drought of the late summer 

 the quantity of milk has every where been less- 

 ened. Mr. C has several fine Durha.ti cows to 

 appearance, of noble forms, and almost the size 

 of the ox. These he thinks not to be adapted to 

 the common New England inistures — they want 

 luxuriant grass fields and high feeding to sustain 

 them : he had cows of the native breed wliich 

 he esteemed better than the Durham cows: but 

 he had an imported Ayrsliire cow which was the 

 most profitable milker of his whole llock ; and a 

 heifer, her offspring, one year old past, with the- 

 horns a little turned in like those of the mother, 

 and with a silky smoothness of hair soft to the 

 touch, the bag nearly of the same light ginger- 

 bread color as the entire body, presented to us 

 the idea of the perfect animal of that kind and 

 age in all its parts. He had also a bull three 

 years old, of the mixed Durham and native breed, 

 the offspring of the celebrated Co'lebs, which 

 was of small size from the thigh downwards to 

 the hoof, and of beautiful projiortious in his head, 

 neck, boily and rump — the hair smooth, and spots 

 upon till- limly iiiiliiating his Durham origin. 



Tr.F,ATMK_\T OF HAT FIELDS. 



Mr. PhiiJiii y uMiiilj;, as much as possible, the 

 range of cattle upon bis hay grounds: he thinks 

 the feeding of meadows to be highly injurious to 

 the subsequent crops ; and into that portion of 

 his mowing lands coming into the same inclo- 

 sure with his orchards and fruit trees he never 

 suffers cattle to come at all. The present sum- 

 mer, from the severe drought, he has been obliged 

 to turn his cows since the hay was taken off" into 

 one or more of his clear hay fields. From the 

 large stock which he keeps it might be supposed 

 that his pastures were abundant in the production 

 of feed. He lias partially made them so by clear- 

 ing out the rocks, and cultivating such portion of 

 them as it was (lossible to plough. Pasture 

 grounds that are not so full of rocks as to pre- 

 clude the plough, we cannot doubt can be culti- 

 vated to great advantage, so that one acre may 

 be made to yield the feed annually olitained from 

 four acres. Alternate jitougliin j ,:i;.l c-ulii\ .linu 

 with manure, laying doHu to li.ii ,^ um, rcc 



years, followed by pasturing ;; , : : . ..t' 



time — carrying the rotation tlin.ii^i -Mi,,! . : lil^s 

 — would soon make the farm of filiy acres a 

 source of greater profit than the ordinary farm 

 of two hundred acres. 



RESULTS SUMMED UP. 



To sum up the results of two hours' observa- 

 tion upon the farm of Mr Phinney, we are free 

 to give him much credit for the character and 

 ariety of his improvements. The ground on 

 vhicli this farm has been made, if it was such :is 

 vould hold the benefits of the labciraiul cx'iriisc 

 bestowed upon if, was not siu-li ground as tin- 

 pitch, if he coiisuhi'd < ill'i-r ca:-^' or rdiisriiirina' : 

 in its original slatr ii iiiii^t lia'. r liam a|i]iai ,'nily 



iiothiuff. 



permanence which is seldom seen on any /arm. 

 His experience has led to the path of the great- 

 est advantage, so that no hrlior is now thrown 

 away : bis i'arm, in aln!o^'t any sfasoii, must yi^ld 

 net profit: he has tlinnvn away notliiiig inain 

 extra Imildings or acrdniiia"! .limis. liis inter- 

 esting fiunilies, with thair w i,r!,:ia ::, a.c all ia::- 



dents under the roof n!' i'. ^ ■■■■■■■ ; '^ n la 

 the body of which wa.^ i ' ' a <: : ;,; 



sixty years ago — a boa 



considered one of the !- i a a '. lua \, laa,, 



now, with the rooms KMicaly aiil-iiii'iit to admit 

 the man of six feet without >;ino|iini'-, might be 

 deemed by fidse (u-ide to !»■ benaa.ib the .lignily 

 of many persons, tall in lliiii' o" n esteem, but 

 less able and less deserving ihiii tla; lliujily of its 

 ))reseut owner: his family, IVoni tlia mother, the 

 daughter of one of the most disiingiiished physi- 

 cian's of Middlesex forty years ago, down to the 

 youngest boy of eleven years, all act well their 

 parts as such a numerous fitmily is most likely 

 to do, none of them decinini; that they ajipear to 



less advantage in the halls of fashion while min- 

 gling with tlie gay world abroad for their close 

 intimacy viith all the domestic duties and pm-- 

 suits of the fireside at home. 



Signs of better Times. 



1. All agricultural produce commands a fair, 

 steady, compensating price, alike removed from 

 the depressed state which sometimes has existed 

 or the unnatural inflation througli whicli we have 

 just passed. 



2. Speculation lias had its day, and the thou- 

 sands wlio have been ruined, have had time to 

 repent at their leisure. The mass of the nation 

 are convinced that honest industry, and slow and 

 sure profits, are far preferable to the hap-hazard 

 and demoralizing influence of such haste to be 

 rich. 



3. Agriculture, it is evident, is assuming its 

 proper place in the estimation of the public. — 

 This may be attributed in part to the knowledge 

 respecting it, which has been distributed by ag- 

 ricultural journals, and in part to the results of 

 the agricultural census, the results of which have 

 demonstrated the paramount importance of this 

 interest. 



4. We find evidence that the mass of reading 

 men begin to think and demand information on 

 the subject of agriculture, in the fact that all our 

 leading newspapers and most influential journals 

 are in the habit of devoting a part of their pub- 

 lications to the dissemination of papers interest- 

 ing to the farmer. 



5. In the process of farming, yearly advances 

 are making. We have this year seen crops of 

 the heaviest growth, where, only a fi?w years 

 since, a quaking bog existed ; better and more 

 productive kinds of corn and other grain have 

 been brought to notice; the culture of roots has 

 been introduced, and Ibiind a most important 

 auxiliary to the farmer; and more attention is 

 paid to the clearing of land, and the destruction 

 of weeds, than formerly. 



6. Sujierior breeds of cattle, sheep and swine 

 have been introduced, and are rapidly spreading 

 over the country ; in short, the elements of indi- 

 vidual and national prosperity were never more 

 fully developing themselves than now. Lot the 

 farmer be thunkful. — Albany CuttivcUor. 



From the Louisville Journal. 

 THE Df^.SERTED FARM. 



We gazed upon the peasant's home j 



ft was a pleasant scene, 

 Secluded in a little dell, 



Whii 



Shou--d ul, 

 ih.inai.y a i 

 Had froiit I 



t the tiiuught 

 el I'd here. 

 piti'iug dropped 



's old place, 

 VERS.\ILLES, 



ThcTonrnal du Havre mentions, as a proof of 

 the distressed state of the colonial sugar trade, 

 that , I VI 11 i i>t come into that port from 

 Gtiadal : I ' ,-1. not having been able to 

 obtain a' a Migar, llie price there being 



such MI' ' 'III! !a,v I iiikicd a loss to the grovvcrs,- 



