166 



GENESEE FARMER. 



July. 



Cochin-China fowls have been introduced into 

 this country. A Mr. Nolan has recently im- 

 ported them into Ireland, and the Queen of Eng- 

 land has occasionally made presents of them 

 among her noblemen. We do not know how 

 they can l>e procured except direct from Cochin- 

 China ; and we must say to our friends in ad- 

 vance, that we cannot undertake their importa- 

 tion from any quarter. We here give them all 

 the information we have upon this interesting 

 subject. — American Agriculturist. 



A Chapter on Hogs. 



Strange as it may seem, in a county pecu- 

 liarly adapted, both by soil and climate, to the 

 growth of Indian corn, there is not pork enough 

 fatted in it to feed its inhabitants. Even farm 

 laborers have to buy pork at the villages, from 

 harvest to killing time, for their own support. — 

 The villages obtain their principal supply from 

 Cayuga county, and from Buffalo. 



Our farmers have so long been accustomed to 

 consider wheat and clover seed as the only pay 

 ing crops, that the growth of almost every other 

 product has been strangely neglected ; I say 

 strangely, because a crop badly put in, and worse 

 tended, is a sort of suicidal farming, which can 

 not be accounted for on rational principles — and 

 that such farming is practiced, very many corn 

 fields have borne witness. 



The great fault in growing pork in Seneca 

 county, is the neglect of the hog from his birth 

 to the time he is shut up for fatting, say 1st Sept.; 

 from that time to killing time, in December, he 

 is fed on new raw corn. The quantity a lean 

 starved animal will consume in two months and 

 a half, is almost beyond belief. Still, so far from 

 being fat, the hog has just commenced fatting 

 when the season has closed, and he must be killed. 

 I instinctively know the character of the farm- 

 er by the quality of pork he offers for sale. When 

 a man brings a long lank carcase, a "streak of 

 fat and a streak of lean," he always complains of 

 the great quantity of corn the hog has eaten. — 

 On the other hand, when a farmer produces a 

 load of pork all fatness, small short legs and short 

 heads, 1 am certain to hear him aver, that it took 

 only at the rate of five bushels of Indian corn 

 each to fat them ; but it was old corn ground and 

 scalded. The first man is behind hand, the last 

 one is before hand, in the art of converting veg- 

 etable food into animal fat. If there is no profit 

 in a well fed and fatted animal, there certainly 

 must be a great loss in one that is killed inwork- 

 ing order, or before it is half fatted. A hog should 

 always be in a gaining condition when shut up to 

 fet; if then weighed every day, it will be found 

 that the gain in weight will much more than pay 

 for the meal eaten, and when the animal is near 

 \y fatted, the gain in fat begins to increase in two 

 fold ratio to the cost of feeding. 



I once bought two lean carcases of pork of a 

 farmer who averred that they had eaten seventy 

 bushels of ears of corn. My curiosity way exci- 

 ted, and I went to see his hog pen : it was rect- 

 angular, laid up with rails. Across one corner a 

 few rails were laid; they were covered with 

 straw to shelter the hogs at night; the mud over 

 the whole pen, sleeping corner and all, was belly 

 deep. Here the animals had toiled and suffered. 

 Put a fat hog in such a pen and he would stick 

 fast ; but nature was too great an economist to 

 permit a hog to fat in such a place — her laws 

 had been outraged, but the farmer's corn paid 

 the penalty. S. W. 



Salt and Ashes for Stock. 



Some yeare since I saw it recommended in an 

 agricultural paper to mix salt with ashes for stock. 

 Having tested the utility of the practice, I am 

 now prepared to speak favorably of it, and from 

 a firm conviction that stock, of all descriptions, 

 are essentially benefitted thereby. My cows, 

 work horses, and young cattle, as well as sheep, 

 have been regularly supplied with it as often as 

 once a week, for two years, and notwithstanding 

 the feed in the pastures, during a part of the gra- 

 zing period of both seasons, was quite short in 

 consequence of the pi-evalence of severe drouth, 

 the stock generally has remained in excellent 

 condition ; much better, indeed, than I have seen 

 them for yeai-s. Sheep, especially, are extreme- 

 ly fond of it, preferring it to fine salt, and par- 

 taking of it with almost the same avidity with 

 which, when hungry, they devour their meal or 

 grain. As to the general efficacy of the practice, 

 and its tendency as respects the health of the 

 stock, I will merely say in conclusion, that I am 

 acquainted with several discriminating farmers 

 who have made the same trial, and that in no in- 

 stance with which I am familiar, or which has 

 fallen under our direct personal observation, has 

 it been attended with other than the best results. 

 The proportions in which the ingredients shouM 

 be given, ai'e one part salt to seven of ashes. — 

 The salt should be fine, and the ashes dry and 

 free from coals. If thought necessary, the salt 

 may be increased in quantity to two or three 

 quarts instead of one. Try it, farmers, and see 

 if it doth not " do good like a medicine." 



In the season of pasturing I usually have sev- 

 eral boxes or long troughs placed in a shed or 

 out building to which the animals can at all times 

 have free access, and which I keep constantly 

 supplied with a quantum sufficit of the mixture. 

 This plan is necessary as an open exposure of 

 the receptacles would subject the salt to injury 

 in rainy weather. — Ccnr. Germantown TeJ, 



Isinglass and gin, dissolved together by slow 

 heat, makes a good cement for glass. 



Rotten stone and turpentine, or gin, rubbed 

 on with a clean cloth, gives a fine polish to brass. 



