168 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



them on hand till they beg^in to sprout, when they will he 

 more sweet and nutritious than in their original state. The 

 Complete Farmer asserts tljat ' when hogs are fatted entire^ 

 ly on acorns, chestnuts, and other productions of the forest, 

 the flesh will eat much better and sweeter than if flattened in 

 a sty. Seme indeed say their fat will not be so solid, nor so 

 profitable, and therefore they commonly shut them up a week 

 or ten days, and feed them with dry peas ; but this is a mis- 

 take, experience hcimig choion that hogs fatted with acorns 

 only have their fat as solid as those fatted with peas.'' If this 

 be correct, the value of acorns as food for sw ine is not gene- 

 rally known in those parts of the United States with which 

 we have been acquainted. We have seen places in the 

 neighborhood of farmers' dwellings where bushels might be 

 had for stooping, but were as much neglected as if they had 

 been pebble stones. The acorns recommended are, we be- 

 lieve, those of the white oak; and whether the acorns of the 

 numerous other kinds of oak are of any value as food for 

 swine Ave cannot say. It might be well to try them, not only 

 raw, but boiled or steamed, and likewise ground into meal, 

 and given with, as well as without other mixtures. We sus- 

 pect that acorns alone would prove astringent, and if so, they 

 might be qualified with a trough full of raw potatoes. 



Carrots, according to Mr. Young, are better than potatoes, 

 and some other writers assure us that parsnips are better 

 than either for feeding hogs. An English writer says, ' They 

 fatten all their pork in the island of Jersey with parsnips. 

 They are much more saccharine than carrots, and it is well 

 known that nothing fattens a hog faster or makes finer pork 

 than the sugar-cane:' and we are told that parsnips suffered 

 to remain in the ground where they grew through the 

 winter, and drawn in the spring and boiled tops and bot- 

 toms, made most excellent food for swine when other food 

 was scarce. 



Acid or fermented food for swine has been highly recom- 

 mended. Mr. Arthur Young, whose authority amongst hus- 

 bandmen is almost equal to that of the pope v.ith Roman 

 Catholics, says, ' that the most profitable method of convert- 

 ing corn of any kind into food for hogs is to grind it into 

 meal, and mix this with water in cisterns, in the proportion 

 of five bushels of meal to one hundred gallons water ; stir- 

 ring it well several times a doy for three weeks in cold 

 weather, or a fortnight in a warmer season, by which it will 

 have ferni3nted well and become acid, till which it is not. 



