174 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



offal to the valuable parts was surprisingly small. I have 

 fifteen more on my farm, part designed for the market in the 

 spring, and part to be kept over as store swine, and their ap- 

 pearance will furnish ocular satisfaction of the propriety of 

 all which has been said in favor of the breed.' 



The above is followed by a communication from the Hon. 

 0. Fiske, in which he says : ' I have obtained the following 

 account of the introduction of this breed of swine from the 

 Hon. T. Pickering. He saw them first on a farm of general 

 Ridgely, about fourteen miles from Philadelphia. General 

 Ridgely informed him that they were brought to this 

 country as a present to general Washington, from the duke 

 of Bedford, who committed them to the care of an English 

 farmer by the name of Parkinson. This man took a farm in 

 the neighborhood of Baltimore ; but instead of sending the 

 swine to general Washington, Parkinson sold them. Gene- 

 ral Ridgely esteemed them very highly, and sent colonel 

 Pickering a pair of them, in a vessel bound to Salem. 



Mr. John Reed, of Roxbury, obtained the breed from colo- 

 nel Pickering's stock ; from Mr. Reed I obtained the offspring 

 from separate litters, and transferred them to Worcester, 

 where, by avoiding the breeding directly i7i and i?i, I have 

 preserved them without degenerating. The race is most 

 perfect and valuable when unadulterated, but affords a most 

 valuable improvement to our native breed when judiciously 

 crossed.' 



Captain John Mackay, of Boston, has exhibited at Brigh- 

 ton a peculiar and excellent breed of swine, which have re- 

 peatedly received premiums from the Massachusetts Agxi' 

 cultural society. 



MANURES. No soil will always prove productive 

 without manure. Though naturally fertile, if some equiva- 

 lent for its produce is not returned to it ; if it is always 

 yielding and never receiving, it must, at length, become 

 barren. 



Particular spots, like Egypt, and other alluvial or inter- 

 val lands, which are annually overflowed, derive manure 

 from the bountiful hand of nature, and cannot be rendered 

 barren by bad husbandry or continual cropping. Some 

 soils, likewise, are not easily exhausted, and are easily re- 

 cruited, in consequence of being composed of materials which 



