vol,, xvm. NO. 9. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



71 



when half my pigs are at the age of 15 and 1(3 

 months, being the fall and winter litters of the pre- 

 vious year, the other half being the pigs of the 

 spring next previonj to killing, and are at the age 

 of 9 and 10 months. The former in years past 

 have weighed from 350 to 100 lbs., and in some in- 

 stances as high as 500 lbs. The latter from 950 to 

 350 lbs. 



An enquiry is often made as to the best time of 

 killing, or at what age it is most profitable to slaugh- 

 ter them.. On a large farm where much green 

 herbage is produced and where the value of the 

 manure is taken into the account, I consider the 

 pigs killed at the age of 15 and l(j months as 

 giving the greatest profit. When it is intended to 

 kill them at this age, they may be kept on more or- 

 dinary and cheaper food for the first 10 or 12 months 

 or till within 4 or 5 mtnths of the time of killing. 

 The manure they make and the e.xtra weight of 

 pork more than pay tlie expense incurred in keep- 

 ing them the longer time ; but the spring pigs 

 which are to be killed the ensuing winter and 

 spring, must be kept upon the best of food from 

 the time they are taken from the sow until they are 

 slaughtered. 



The older class of pigs, for tlie first 10 or 12 

 months, are kept principally upon brewers' grains, 

 witli a small quantity of Indian or barley meal or 

 rice, ruta baga, sugar beet, &c., and in the season 

 of clover, peas, oats, cornstalks, weeds, &c., they 

 are cut green and thrown into the pens; the next 

 four or five months before killing they have as much 

 Indian meal, barley meal or rice, with an equal 

 quantity of potatoes, apples or pumpkins as they 

 will eat, the whole being well cooked and salted, 

 and given to them about blood warm. During the 

 season of fattening, an ear or two of hard corn is 

 every day given to each pig. This small quantity 

 they will digest well, and of course there is no 

 waste. Shelled corn soaked in water made as 

 salt as the water of the ocean, for 48 hours, with a 

 quart of wood ashes added to each bushel and given 

 to them occasionally in small quantities, greatly 

 promotes their health and growth. Their health 

 and appetite is also greatly promoted by throwing i 

 a handful of charcoal once or twice a week into • 

 each of their pens. Their principal food should, I 

 however, be cooked as thoroughly and as nicely as j 

 if intended for table use. From long practice and 

 repeated experiments, I am convinced that two dol- '■ 

 lars worth of material well cooked will make as 

 much pork as three dollars worth of the same ma^j 

 terial given in a raw state. j 



Pigs when first taken from the sow should, be' 

 treated with great care, to prevent scouring and: 

 from becoming stinted ; when either of these hap- 

 nen. it will renuiremanv davs and sc niptimps wpbIjo 



food, but kept in a healthy, growing condition, till 

 within four or five months of the time of killing, 

 when they were fed as high as the others. They 

 were all slaughtered at the same time, being then 

 16 [iionths old. At the age of 9 months the full 

 fod pigs were much the heaviest, hut at the time of 

 killing, the pigs fod sparingly for the first 10 or 12 

 months weighed, upon an average, fifty pounds 

 each more than the others. Besides this addition- 

 al weight of pork, the three "lean kinc" added 

 much UK>re thaU: the others to my manure heap. — 

 These results would seem very obvious to any one 

 who has noticed the habits of the animal. In con- 

 sequence of short feeding they were much more 

 active and industrious iu the manufacture of com- 

 post, and this activity at the same time caused the 

 muscles to enlarge and the frame to spread, while 

 the very fat pigs became inactive, and like indolent 

 bipeds, they neither worked for their own benefit 

 nor for that of others. 



For the purpose of increasing my manure heap, 

 my pens are kept constantly supplied with peat or 

 swamp mud, about three hundred loads of which 

 are annually thrown into my styes. '1 his, with the 

 manure from my horse stable, which is daily thrown 

 in, and the weeds and coarse herbage which are 

 gathered from the farm, .give me about . 500 cart 

 loads of manure in a year. 



On legular and systematic feeding and clean 

 and dry bedding, the success of raising and fatten- 

 ing swine very much depends. A faithful feeder, 

 also, who has some skill and taste, and withal a lit- 

 tle pride of vocation, is indispensahle. Homer in- 

 forms us that much of the success of Ulysses, in 

 rearing his fine hogs, was to be attributed to his 

 faithful Umeus, whom the old soldier syled (SiOi 

 gv6<DTijg). godlike swinefeeder. 



The annexed is a rough plan, which may serve 

 to give you an idea of the compact manner in which 

 my hogs are kept. It is intended for a plan of the 

 upper story and one end. The lower story corres- 

 ponds with the upper, except that the promenade is 

 extended out about six. feet from the line of the 

 upper outside promenade line. 



The roof covers the passage way and eating and 

 sleeping apartments on each side, and made suffic- 

 iently high to enable the feeder to pass between 

 the pens. The floors of the eating and sleeping 

 apartments are made perfectly tight — the floor of 

 the promenade in the upper story is laid with nar- 

 row planli, placed about one inch apart, so that 

 whatever is dropped by the pigs, falls through on 

 the compost beneath. The promenade of the low- 

 er story has no floor. The only passage for pass- 

 ing the pigs out and in, is by a slide door between 

 each dormitory and the main passage way. The 

 pen being on ground which is a little higher at the 

 end where the boilers are placed than at the other, 

 the floor of the boiler room is on a level with the 

 passage way of the upper story, where the pigs 

 kept in this part of the building are taken in and 

 out. At the i.ther end of the building, the floor of 

 the passage way in the lower story is on a level 

 with the natural surface of the ground, and by a 

 door at that end of the passage way, the hogs in 

 tho-lower story are taken in and out. You will per- 

 ceive that a pen 100 feet long and 34 wide, with 3 

 in a pen, wilt furnish ample accommodaticms for 

 120 hogs. A passage way for the feeder is made 

 from the cooking room to the passage way in the 

 lower story. 



Very respectfully yours, 



E. PHINNEY. 



For the N, E. Facmer. 



-Mr Breck — I hope yon will continue your " No- 

 tices of Farms — Minutes by tlie Way, &c." ; it is 

 just what we need — shows us things as they are. 

 If farmers will not or cannot find time to tell one 

 another what they are doing for the advancement 

 of agriculture, some one should for them; for from 

 the practice of all, something can be learnt : we 

 should hear of the success and failures of different 

 individuals, that we may profit by the one and a- 

 void the other. You need not fear of speaking too 

 plain. — we need the experience of one another. — 

 Wo often hear farmers say "they cannot afford to 

 do this or that way" — this word afford has troubled 

 me exceedingly. I do not understand it, in the 

 connexion it is so often used. In vour account of 



