ON SWINE. 89 



iDther 578 lbs. making a total of 1189 lbs. These pigs, says 

 the editor, were fed upon apples and milk through the latter part 

 of the summer and one or two of the first fall months. Since it 

 was designed to fatten them, they have been fed upon indian 

 meal. 



Elias Taylor, of Charlemont, an experienced and shrewd 

 farmer, mentioned to me an experiment made by himself in fat- 

 tening four hogs. He boiled for them three bushels of potatoes, 

 and added to them when boiled one peck of indian meal — mash- 

 ed the potatoes with the meal and added cold water. He then 

 left this mixture to ferment ; and when it had become sour he 

 fed his swine freely with it. He says his hogs gained surprisingly 

 on this food, and never throve faster ; and that they were fed at 

 a small expense. This statement certainly deserves attention, 

 though it is much to be regretted that it was not managed and 

 detailed with more correctness. 



The value of fermented food for swine has often been stated 

 and urged. My own experiments in this matter have not been 

 made with sufficient exactness, nor for a sufficient length of time, 

 to authorize me to speak with confidence on the subject, though 

 they incline me to think favorably of it. " The most profitable 

 mode, in the estimation of Arthur Young, ofconverting any kind 

 of corn into food for swine, consists in grinding it into meal, and 

 mixing the latter with water, in cisterns, in the proportion of five 

 bushels of meal to one hundred gallons of water. This must be 

 well stirred several times in a day, for a fortnight, during warm 

 weather, or for three weeks in a colder season, at the expiration 

 of which time it will have fermented and become acid. In this 

 state, and not before, the wash is ready for use ; it ought to be 

 stirred every time before feeding, and it will be necessary to keep 

 two or three cisterns fermenting in succession in order to prevent 

 it being used before it is duly prepared. The difference of pro- 

 fit between feeding in this manner, and giving the grain whole or 

 only ground, iMr. Young adds, is so great, that whoever tries it 

 once will not be induced to change it for the common methods. 



Complete Grazier, p. 297. 



A recent experiment detailed in the British Farmer's Maga- 

 12 



