1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



11 



FACTS ABOUT FEEDING HOESES. 



In a recent number of the Rural, an inquirer 

 asks if fermented grain will fatten hogs, and also 

 states that a conversation with some sava?it in a 

 railroad car has led to the inquiry. Having had 

 occasion to use from two to four road horses for 

 my own driving for the last twenty-one years, and 

 having fed my hogs in the fall from the same 

 grain as the horses for the last ten years, per- 

 haps this limited experience may be of benefit to 

 some of the numerous readers of your valuable 

 journal. 



My first impressions were that good, clean, 

 bright timothy hay, and good oats, were alone fit 

 for roadsters. For two or three years I used noth- 

 ing else, when necessity compelled me to fill 

 my barn with the red-top grass, and my mind 

 with the beautiful prospect of heaves, crow fod- 

 der, and all that sort of thing. Contrary to all my 

 high Avrought anticipations, however, I found my 

 horses went out of the stable, not as full and 

 plump in the morning, but returned much more 

 so at night, than when fed on timothy. This took 

 the first scale from my eyes. 



Soon after this having raised a few hundred 

 bushels of corn of my own, the query arose as to 

 what disposition was to be made of it. Scours, 

 founders, belly ache and all that kind of nonsense, 

 attached itself to the idea of feeding it to horses, 

 when a friend suggested that I should break it up 

 short, and soak it in the ear. On this I found my 

 horses could do as much work as on good oats. 

 The bulk of the cob made it too much labor, and 

 I soon after commenced with shelled corn, and 

 for the last fifteen years have fed no other grain, 

 when at home than this. 



About the same time I learned the important 

 fact that hay was not necessary, and that the 

 same money laid out in good bright straw and 

 corn, would last much longer than the same in 

 hay and oats. My plan was to take a barrel and 

 fill, say two-thircfs full of corn, and then full of 

 water, and when I commenced feeding this, would 

 have another bari-el filled and soaking while using 

 the first. The odor which it gives in summer is 

 not sometimes as pleasant as otto of roses, and I 

 have found that with some horses there was an 

 objection to feeding it, if compelled to feed them 

 away from home, for they would utterly refuse 

 any other kind of grain. It was seldom that I 

 found a horse that would eat more than four 

 quarts of this three times a day, which is equiva- 

 lent to less than three of dry corn for any length 

 of time. Strange as it may seem to many an old 

 fogy, after harvesting my crop of carrots, I have 

 substituted one and two feeds a day of four quarts 

 of carrots for their feed of corn, and had them do 

 equally as well ; but have never given them to my 

 hogs instead of corn. 



If said learned savant will consult Liebig's Ani- 

 mal Chemistry, he will find the true rationale to 

 the above facts. There are many advantages in 

 feeding fermented grain to horses subject to fast 

 driving, only two of which I shall mention now. 

 First — it is easier of digestion, so that if any one 

 it obliged to start the horse as soon as his meal is 

 finished, he is not so apt to scour. Second — you 

 can feed him, however warm he may be, without 

 the least fear of injury. Give him his regular 

 feed and then turn him to the barrel and let him 



eat his fill, and your humble writer will guarantee 

 all damage from it. And if he has just learned 

 that he has been killing lean hogs for the last ten 

 years, surely he must need some lessons. — Rural 

 New-Yorker. 



SCIENCE IS KING. 



Some of our readers are anxious under the 

 present condition of our national affairs, and 

 make numerous inquiries about results. We can- 

 not tell. These only are known to Him who guid- 

 ed our forefathers here, and Avho has sustained us 

 in the trials through which we have passed. 

 There is certainly cause for anxiety, but as yet, 

 none for alarm. No mortal power can starve out 

 or hunt down a population like that of New Eng- 

 land, made up of men and women who can work 

 all day, live upon saw-dust pudding, if necessary, 

 and then defend themselves all night. They can 

 neither be subjugated, nor will they violate the 

 rights of others, so long as the Homes and 

 Hearthstones of New England are their own. 

 Our anxiety is, that the pride of wealth, the insa- 

 tiable desire to accumulate riches, will induce 

 some of our merchant people to do violence to 

 their consciences, to liberty and God. 



It shows the weakness and folly of any men 

 when they threaten to starve a free people by 

 withholding from them one or two agricultural 

 products ; it shows, also, their ignorance of the 

 laws of trade, vi\i\c\i axe as utterly beyond their 

 conti-ol as are the motions of the waves which lave 

 our beautiful shores. 



We have given in another column an article 

 upon the subject, ^'■Science is King," and invite 

 the attention of the reader to it. In the excited 

 state of the public mind, we commend to all the 

 use of mild language, but a defence of principle 

 as firm as the granite hills which tower above us. 

 Let us examine our position, and see if we are 

 right before God and man, and if we find our- 

 selves to be so, death is better than concession. 



Wheat in New Hampshire. — Mr. E. M. Dun- 

 bar, writing to the Rural American, says that in 

 New Hampshire there has been more excitement 

 about the crop of wheat this year than about the 

 election of President, and adds : 



I think the yield of wheat will average thirty 

 bushels to the acre throughout the State. I have 

 raised thirty-two and a half bushels from one hun- 

 dred and fifty rods of ground, which makes as nice 

 flour as anybody need to have. Others have 

 done better, harvesting upwards of forty bushels 

 to the acre. 



Keep Hogs Clean. — Hogs kept all the time 

 wallowing in their own filth, can neither be 

 healthy nor make good nutritious pork. The 

 stench of the pen permeates the tissues of the an- 

 imal through the medium of tha lungs. So says 

 the Ohio Farmer. 



