AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 169 



ready to give. The mixture should always be stirred im- 

 mediately before feeding, and two or three cisterns should 

 be kept fermenting in succession, that no necessity may oc- 

 cur of giving it not duly prepared.' Judge Peters, of Penn- 

 sylvania, whose authority is, in our opinion, not inferior to 

 that of any man who ever wrote on agricultural topics, says, 

 in substance, that ' so'ir food is most grateful and alimentary 

 to swine. One gallon of sour wash goes farther than two 

 of sweet.' But 



An English \/ork entitled ' Farmer's Calendar,' (author's 

 name not given,) declares that ' much has been said, and lit- 

 tle understood, about purposely souring food for hogs. It is 

 not that acidity can possibly tend to pinguefaction, [making 

 fat,] but it is found the pigs will readily fatten upon acid, or 

 rather acescent food, a sweetish taste and glutinous quality 

 succeeding fermentation ; and that they will do so still more 

 readily upon such as has never reached the acid state^ I kyiow 

 and have seen in hundreds of instances. Is a proof wanted ? 

 How much more readily do the country hogs feed upon 

 sweet and unfermented food, than those of the starch-house 

 upon the fermented and subacid wash, however rich. I 

 say subacid, for did not starch-makers run off a great part 

 of that which is really sour, they would kill instead of fatten 

 their hogs.' In order to reconcile these writers it will only 

 be necessary to advert to the different stages of ordinary 

 fermentation, and the products of each stage. The first 

 stage of fermentation produces sugar, and is called the sac- 

 charine fermentation. The second stage develops alcohol, 

 or spirit of wine, and is called the vinous fermentation. 

 The third stage produces vinegar, and is called the acid fermen- 

 tation ; and the fourth and last stage converts the matter 

 fermenting into a substance which is not only offensive, but 

 poisonous, and is called the putrid fermentation. Thus if 

 you soak wheat or other farinaceous substance in water of a 

 proper temperature it will first become sweet, and begin to 

 sprout or vegetate ; it will next afford spirit or alcohol ; con- 

 tinue the process, th3 wash turns sour, at first slightly, and 

 then more strongly acid ; and at last the whole becomes pu- 

 trid. It probably contains most nourishment when it is 

 sweetest, but it is valuable till very sour, when it is worth 

 little or nothing; and when the putrid fermentation has 

 commenced it is worse than nothing, as food for any animal. 

 The farmer then should give his wash to his pigs while it is 

 yet sweet, or but beginning to turn sour. 

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