98 ON SWINE. 



amount to 9 dollars, and if the first cost, 5 dollars 50 cents, be 

 added, and the pig sold at 6 cents, there would be but two dollars 

 gain on two pigs of 100 lbs. each ; while three small pigs without 

 meal fed on milk would give 24 dollars in the same time. 1 do 

 not mean to give minute details but general views. As an impor- 

 tant qualification of the foregoing statement it should be added 

 that shoats of six months bought out of droves have usually been 

 stinted in their growth, and animals, like trees, recover slowly af- 

 ter a check. I presume if shoats were taken from a careful and 

 liberal owner the difference would be less. But as a general law 

 it may be safely affirmed, that weight for weight at the purchase, 

 the 'younger the animal the greater the positive, and the far great- 

 er the net, gain. At least such is my own experience and be- 

 lief." 



The foregoing letter of this intelligent and practical farmer is 

 entitled to particular consideration. I have one or two other 

 statements, which deserve attention. It is stated in the Domes- 

 tic Encyclopedia, article Soiling, that " Twenty five shoats were 

 fed for three months with green clover cut from less than one a- 

 cre ; they were then fed on Indian Corn and when killed weigh- 

 ed three thousand pounds. This is certainly an extraordinary 

 statement, and I have no other authority for it'than what is here 

 given. But the Rev. Thomas Mason, of Northfield, MasS- 

 showed me the 27th Sept. last, three fine thrifty swine about nine 

 months or more old, nine-tenths of whose feed, as he assured me, 

 since the 13th of May last, had been obtained from one-eighth 

 of an acre of clover cut and given to them green. 



The preceding facts and experiments encourage the belief that 

 hogs may be raised and fattened by the farmer to advantage, 

 where corn is worth about seventy cents per bushel, and his pork 

 will bring him six cents per pound. Like almost every other 

 business, especially of an agricultural nature, success must greatly 

 depend on skill, care, selection, and good management. The 

 best swine that I have ever found have been in dairy countries, 

 for there cannot be a doubt that milk and whey for every animal 

 are among the most nutritious of aliments. Indian meal proba- 

 bly ranks next, though many farmers prefer a mixture of proven- 



