S861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



555 



pings, weighed, at six months old, two hundred 

 and eighty pounds, ami the pork was allowed to 

 be extremely tender. I last year tried to fatten 

 hogs OQ grey peas alone, giving them milk to 

 drink. The animals took on fat rapidly, but did 

 not acquire so great weight as those fed on bean 

 meal." The legumes are ali of them excellent 

 food for swine. 



When peas and beans have got wet and mouldy 

 to an extent which renders them unfit for culina- 

 ry purposes, they should have scalding water 

 poured over them, and after being allowed to dry, 

 be reduced to meal for swine. The action of the 

 hot water will at once remove fungi or mould, 

 and render them sufficiently sweet to ensure 

 their being eaten by the animals. 



OLD HORSES, 



The terra old, as applied to horses, is generally 

 intended to convey not only the statement of 

 their age being past marks in the mouth, but 

 also the common impression that comparatively 

 they are of little value, if past eight or nine years. 

 Now, if we rightly understand it, the horse has 

 not attained his full growth and perfection of 

 bodily frame, until he has passed his seventh 

 year; and until growth is attained, he is just as 

 •dnfitted for extreme hard labor as a man before 

 arriving at full manhood. In this country, the 

 practice of putting horses to work at two and three 

 years, usually results in their becoming broken 

 down by over-driving or over-straining before 

 they have attained firmness of muscle, and capa- 

 bility for enduring labor. Thus it is, that horses 

 are often, with us, rendered comparatively value- 

 less before they have in truth arrived at an age 

 of full powers and endurance. We have owned a 

 number of horses, and whenever we have had one 

 that had not been injured before arriving at ma- 

 turity, we have found him more capable of per- 

 forming regular labor at from ten to fifteen, than 

 those of four to seven years. In our opinion, 

 therefore, judging from observation, we consider 

 the horse in his prime at from nine to thirteen 

 years of age, always remembering that previous 

 to his having attained his growth, say at seven 

 years, he has not been over-driven, strained, or 

 otherwise injured by reason of high stimulating 

 food or abuse. — Ohio Farmer. 



The Manufactures of Philadelphia. — A 

 recent report of the Philadelphia Board of Trade 

 exhibits the immense manufacturing industry of 

 that city by a very impressive array of figures. 

 An alphabetical list of the manufactures gives the 

 following summary : 6,467 establishments ; capi- 

 tal invested, $31,608,502; value of raw material, 

 §77,473,677 ; number of persons employed, adults, 

 107, 9ol ; value of products, $152,oo5,318 ; aver- 

 age production to each person $1,411 60; aver- 

 age production of each establishment, $23,558- 

 87. There are 525 establishments for the manu- 

 facture of textile fabrics, 049 for the production 

 of iron and steel wares, besides 190 where the 

 manufactures are partly iron and steel, 1,523 

 clothing establishments, 139 for working gold 



and silver, 592 for wood, 76 for clay, sand and 

 earth, 57 for paper, 206. printing establishments, 

 116 distilleries, 104 factories for the manufacture 

 of leather, exclusive of boots and shoes, 78 soap, 

 candle and oil factories, and 44 chemical es- 

 tablishments. The population of the city is 

 600,000. 



For Vie New England Farmer. 



SOMETHINa MORE ABOUT MUCK. 



There has already been a great deal said and 

 written about muck and its use as a fertilizer ; 

 still very few farmers know, or believe, anything 

 about its real value. It is set down by the ma- 

 jority, even here in enlightened Massachusetts, 

 as a branch of book-farming that won't pay. 

 Very many men tell me this. I ask them how 

 they know ? Because, if it was really good for 

 anything, it would be more generally used — in 

 their immediate vicinity, of course. I tell them 

 there are sections where some find it profitable, 

 and use all they can get, and cite some one near. 

 O, well ! no doubt 'Squire Jones does make it 

 pay, he gets his money easy, and can aS'ord such 

 expense as getting muck. Granted, that the 

 'Squire does get his money easy, he does not get 

 any easier than that he gets from muck. I know 

 that a large majority of the farmers who live 

 within half an hour's ride of Worcester city, (by 

 farm-horse conveyance,) feel like this. 



While travelling in that vicinity the other day, 

 I saw a tall, robust looking man whittling away 

 with a draw-shave on a long pine log ; there were 

 two or three bright, active boys, his sons, in an 

 adjoining field, digging potatoes, and three or 

 four yoke of steers in another field — his oxen. The 

 land about his buildings used to be good land. 

 He said his grandfather had raised forty bushels 

 of winter wheat per acre on it, but it was new 

 land then, and the seasons were better ; there 

 was no "midge" or other insect to destroy it, &c. ; 

 that twenty bushels was a large yield now. He 

 showed me another piece where he had helped 

 mow two tons of hay per acre, that cut one ton 

 now, and his corn and potatoes were about the 

 same. 

 I asked him why he did not manure his land. 

 "I keep more cattle than father did, own mea- 

 dows, buy hay, &c., but manure don't seem to do 

 as it used to. If it was not for my trade, I could 

 hardly live and keep out of debt. My father 

 made pumps, and I make the same kind; a good 

 thing, and no mistake." 



"How much profit do you make on such a 

 pump •''" 



"I earn about $1 a day, and board myself, usu- 

 ally ; now, I get a good deal less." 



I pitied that great mass of muscular strength 

 before mc, but from every day's experience I 

 knew there was no help for him. He would al- 

 ways do as his father had done. I saw his eldest 

 son approaching, so I cast my eyes around to find 

 if I could see anything near as proof, for I was 

 determined to sow a few progressive seeds in his 

 active brain, and lo ! the proof was within a 

 stone's throw of us. 



While this man had been hacking away on his 

 old-fashioned wood pumps, wasting time and tim- 

 ber, the soil that was his father's had been wash- 

 ing off into the valley below, and there lay thou- 



