ESSEX SOCIETY. 69 



treatment, we generally find them, in from four to twelve 

 months, fat. We then turn them for beef at the highest mar- 

 ket price, and they return us from twenty to fifty dollars a 

 pair more than their cost. We have considered this one of 

 the most profitable ways of keeping cattle. 



The management of our swine at the Town Farm has 

 so often been stated, that I have nothing new to communi- 

 cate ; but as these few remarks may come to the notice of 

 those who are not familiar with our management, I will briefly 

 state it. 



We have a yard covering about half an acre of ground, in 

 which our swine are kept. It is so constructed as best to 

 facilitate the making and preservation of manure. Care is 

 taken to have a full supply of meadow mud, and other mate- 

 rials collected on the farm, for the operations of the swine. 

 In this way there is annually made more than a hundred cords 

 of valuable manure. This adds much in increasing the crops 

 and improving the condition of the farm. We replenish our 

 stock of swine twice a year, by purchasing usually from 

 Brighton Market from seventy-five to eighty pigs, of about a 

 hundred pounds weight. 



Care is always taken to select the most promising from the 

 droves there for sale. After keeping them about six months, 

 we find them to weigh from two to three hundred pounds. 

 Much of their feed is furnished from the offal procured from 

 slaughter-houses in town. This offal adds essentially to the 

 quantity and quality of the manure. Attached to the yard 

 are sheds to protect them from the weather, and there is a con- 

 venient house fitted up with troughs for feeding them. Most 

 of the labor in collecting the materials for manure and taking 

 care of the swine, is performed by the inmates of the house, 

 so that it is done without much expense. I would say that I 

 think it important that hogs should have a place to lie where 

 they can be free from wet or dampness, for unless they have 

 a dry bed they will not fatten. The present year we paid 

 seven cents per pound for pigs, the pork was sold at eight and 

 one-half cents per pound, yielding, we consider, a fair return 

 and a good profit. 



WiNGATE Merrill, Chairman. 



Danvers, Nov. 18, 1852. 



