Vv^- 



274 THE GENESEE FAEMEE. 





understood than many suppose. The learned and scientific men who have cultivated 

 these departments of natural history, have been unacquinted with agriculture, and their 

 language is too classical and little known for their books to be much read by farmers. In 

 future numbers of this journal we shall endeavor to describe in familiar terms the habits 

 and transformations of those insects most injurious to agriculturists. 



THE BREEDING, REARING, AND FATTENING OF SWINE. 



There is abundant room for the exercise of skill and talent in the breeding, rearing, 

 and fattening of swine. Of all nations, the United States have the greatest facilities 

 for prosecuting this branch of husbandry in the most economical manner, by reason of 

 the fact that Indian corn may be grown by American farmers on which to feed hogs, 

 cheaper than in any other country. It is our superior natural advantages for keeping 

 this class of animals that makes the swine of American husbandmen excel their sheep in 

 numbers nearly ten millions. Tennessee has four times more hogs than sheep ; and the 

 business of producing pork, lard, and bacon for foreign consumption, extends much 

 more rapidly than wool-growing, although a pretty high tariff has been brought to bear 

 in favor of the latter. 



Less attention is paid to the breeding of hogs, generally speaking, than to any other 

 domestic animals. This neglect leads to their deterioration in many districts, particu- 

 larly where pork or bacon is not a staple of agriculture. The remedy lies in keeping 

 a smaller number, selecting both males and females with the greatest care as to form, 

 quiet habits, tendency to take on flesh, and the females should be good nurses. Breed- 

 ing in-and-in, or in too close relationship, is a common error with farmers who allow 

 their hogs to run in large herds, and with little regard to males. Carelessness in the 

 propagation of swine can not be too severely censured ; for beyond all question it 

 imposes a needless loss on the country of many millions of dollars every year. 



One should breed large, or small, or medium sized hogs, according to the market, and 

 the cheapness with which they can grow the food consumed by this kind of stock. As 

 a genej-al rule, hogs of medium size, well fatted, are most desirable, although instances 

 are not rare where packers and hog buyers pay a premium for heavy porkers. They 

 are said to cut up to a better advantage, and yield a larger cash return per 100 pounds. 

 The intelligent farmer will readily learn what his market calls for, and meet it in the 

 most economical way. Having wisely selected that breed which suits his circumstances 

 best, he will not allow his sows to bring up more pigs than they can fairly supply with 

 milk, unless he has the milk of cows to aid in pushing them forward in the first 

 two months of their existence. Where hog-raising is prosecuted on an extensive scale, 

 pigs are wholly dependent on their mothers for nutriment for some weeks when young ; 

 and then is the time when their constitutional powers and habits are mainly fixed for 

 life. A pig once seriously stunted, is irreparably damaged ; and we can not too 

 earnestly insist on the policy of attempting to rear no more than one can feed well all 

 their days. Cheap meat — that is, meat made at a small cost to the producer, is that 

 which is the product of cheaply grown food, not that obtained from half starved pigs, 

 shoats, and stock-hogs. It is all-important to the farmer who makes fot hogs his prin- 

 cipal crop, that he understand the art of producing clover, peas, oats, and corn in the 

 cheapest possible manner. Fresh clover fields are exceedingly valuable as ranges for 

 large herds of swine ; they may even be wintered on good clover hay, although corn, 

 peas, oats and roots are cheaper winter feed. To produce meat at the minimum cost, 

 whether pork, beef, or mutton, one must have rich land. The farmers of New York 

 and New England can not compete successfully with those of the richest portions of 



