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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Mat 



For the Sew England Farmer. 

 WHITE, CHESTEB COUN'TY SWINE. 



Mr. Editok : — An inquiry was made in your 

 paper in November last, about the peculiar char- 

 acteristics of the Chester county white breed of 

 swine, and also what was their origin. Being in- 

 terested myself in the last inquiry, I soon after 

 ■wTote to Mr. Thomas Wood, of Chester county, 

 Pennsylvania — the most extensive dealer in this 

 breed in my knowledge — and proposed the same 

 questions, with others, to him. I copy from his 

 reply as follows : 



"They are what we call home-made hogs, having 

 been brought to their present condition by a long 

 course of judicious crossing and careful breeding 

 by many of our best stock men. The origin or 

 fii'st impulse to this improvement was the impor- 

 tation to this county of a pair of very fine pigs, 

 by Capt. James Jeffries. They were brought from 

 Bedfordshire, England, about forty years since. 

 They claim no foreign blood since. As the swine 

 thus imported began to have some notoriety, they 

 were called Chester county hogs, after the county 

 in which they originated, as in England the im- 

 proved stock is named after the shires or counties 

 in which they originate. The Chester has become 

 the most popular breed of hogs in this country. 

 I have been engaged in breeding thirty years, and 

 shipping them for eight or nine years to nearly 

 every State of the Union, Canada and Nova Sco- 

 tia, and the demand for them is constantly in- 

 creasing as they become known. They are a white 

 hog, long, square built, short head, and good ham, 

 and will readily fatten at any age, and we think 

 make more pork to the amount of feed consumed, 

 and in a shorter time, than any other breed. They 

 are easily kept, and quiet, good breeders." 



In reply to my question as to their weight when 

 well fattened, at given ages, he says : 



"I have known several to weigh 300 lbs., and 

 some over, at 9 months old ; also several to weigh 

 between 600 and 700 at 18 months old ; several 

 to weigh over 800 at a little under 2 years old, 

 and one to weigh 990 at 20 months old, dressed 

 weight." 



My father has been breeding the Chester coun- 

 ty hogs for about four years, and his experience 

 fully confirms the opinion expressed by Mr. Wood, 

 that "they make more pork, according to the 

 amount of feed consumed, than any other breed." 

 They are a remarkably hearty and healthy breed, 

 and are the most docile and gentle mothers I ever 

 saw. They combine so many good qualities that 

 they not only are rapidly gaining in their popular- 

 ity, but of right, should be "the most popular 

 breed in this country." D. H. GOODELL. 



Antrim, N. JL, March 5, 18G2. 



A Natural Curiosity. — A singular instance 

 of the foresight of a field mouse has just been 

 brought under our cognizance. A person clear- 

 ing the garden ground of Mr. Thos. Thompson, 

 Dalkeith, Scotland, came upon a growing turnip, 

 which he pulled up by the root. Guess his aston- 

 ishment when he found that the turnip was com- 

 pletely hollowed out as neatly as if it had been 

 done by the chisel of a joiner, and the interior 

 filled by large garden beans. The work, from the 

 size of the hole whence the inside of the turnip 



had been extracted, was manifestly that of a mouse, 

 and the object, no doubt, of filling the interior with 

 beans was to provide against hunger in the barren 

 winter weather. Near the place where the turnip 

 was growing there were several stalks of beans, 

 upon which some pods had been left, and it is sup- 

 posed that the 'cute mouse had helped itself to 

 these. We counted the beans in the turnip — 

 a small one — and found that they amounted to no 

 less than six dozen and two. — Scottish Farmer. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 A WOBD ABOUT? COLTS. 



An impression, and I think an erroneous one, 

 prevails M'ith many that colts are injured by early 

 training. That some colts are injured, and their 

 constitutions broken, by cruel and rough treat- 

 ment, before they have acquired their strength, 

 cannot be doubted ; but careful, judicious train- 

 ing, is as important with colts, as with steers, or 

 with children, even. In fact, I believe it true of 

 all young animals intended for domestic use, as of 

 a child, "Train them in the way they should go, 

 and when they are old they will not depart from 

 it." 



I have two colts, one eight months old, and the 

 other one year and eight months. They are both 

 accustomed to the harness. The oldest I have 

 frequently used in the sleigh. On one occasion 

 this winter, when the sleighing was good, it has 

 taken me, together with my little son, to Ports- 

 mouth and back, a distance of nine miles, each 

 way, with no inconvenience or injury whatever. 

 Some persons who knew the age of the colt, and 

 the distance it travelled, remarked to me, "You 

 will kill that colt." 



This remark induced me to write this short ar- 

 ticle. Without knowing the circumstances, the 

 reader, perhaps, would form a similar judgment — 

 but the colt is large of its age, in good condition 

 as to flesh, and high spirited ; and I required it to 

 walk at least two-thirds the distance each way. 

 It was well fed in the city, taken through streets 

 where it could hear various sounds, and witness 

 all sorts of objects — still it was not sufiered to 

 tire, or scarcely to sweat at all, and to every ap- 

 pearance was as lively and bright when I reached 

 home as when I started. To have forced it be- 

 yond its strength that distance, or half the dis- 

 tance, would have been injurious — but careful 

 training is always beneficial, and we rarely begin 

 too young with anything. 



Lambert Maynard, Esq., of Bradford, Mass., 

 the owner of one of the finest stallions in New 

 England, (Trotting Childers.) who has had much 

 experience in raising and training colts, and who 

 has sold some fine colts of his own raising at a 

 high figure, informs me that his colts are all brok- 

 en to the harness before they are a year old, or as 

 he more properly expressed it, educated. He 

 rarely, if ever, uses a whip. As to its injuring 

 them, to use them to young, he remarked that he 

 never exercised them so hard as they exercise 

 themselves when alone. 



So much for early training — and now one word 

 about feeding and exercise. Colts should never 

 be forced with provender, nor stunted for want of 

 nourishing food. My method is to give them as 

 much good, sweet clover hay as they will cat clean. 



