160 



- NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



May 



Mr. Smith, of Granby, gave his experience in 

 draining swale, and found it profitable. 



Mr. Howard, of Boston, endorsed the prac- 

 tice of land drainage, especially of clay lands. It 

 costs about fifty cents a rod to dig drains here. 

 In Western New York, it can be donf for thirty 

 cents. 



Mr. Wetherell, of Boston, spoke strongly in 

 favor of drainage. He maintained that drains in 

 clay soil should not be laid less than four feet 

 deep. In speaking of soils, he said that sand, 

 when thoroughly dried, 100 pounds of it would 

 hold or absorb 25 pounds of water; loam, 100 

 pounds in the same condition would absorb 40 

 pounds of water ; and pure clay, 100 pounds 

 would absorb 70 jwunds of water. This, he said, 

 showed the different character of soils. He urged 

 this improvement as tho one that must be accept- 

 ed by farmers. No farmer tliat has ■wet lands can 

 afford to till them undrained. 



Mr. Flower, of Agawam, said that for the first 

 time we are all agreed that drainage is important, 

 however, we may have difi'ered on other subjects. 

 He mentioned practical results in his vicinity. 



Mr. Drew advocated drainage, giving both ex- 

 perience and observation in its favor. 



Mr. Tower, of Lanesboro', spoke of the bene- 

 ficial results of drainage, and highly commended it. 



A gentleman from Sprhigfield gave an instance 

 in the Connectiut Valley where drainage destroyed 

 mosquitoes, — a new reason added to the important 

 ones-alieady known. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 EXPEBIMEKTTS IKT FEEDING PIGS. 



Mr. Editor : — Your correspondent of Ken- 

 sington, N. H., undertakes to prove in the last 

 Farmer, that the pig which I spoke of in a late 

 number, weighing 400 pounds at nine months old, 

 and fattened on mush, ate 28 bushels of meal, ac- 

 cording to Mr. Ellsworth's experiments ; which, 

 at 70 cents per bushel, is equal to $19,60. Now, 

 my figures are diff'erent from Mr. Ellsworth's, in 

 respect to the amount of meal it takes to make a 

 pound of pork. The pig which I refer to was 

 shut up in a small pen, while INIr. Ellsworth's, per- 

 haps, were allowed to run about in a field. I wish 

 to show my friend, Mr. Brown, of Kensington, 

 some figures that he can depend on, and if he has 

 fattened a pig any cheaper by feeding it raw corn, 

 I, for one, would' like to know it. Figures will 

 not lie. 



The pig to which I refer ate no other food to 

 any amount, but cooked meal, with occasionally 

 a little sour milk. The amount of meal that it 

 consumed was 747 pounds, or 13^ bushels, which, 

 at 70 cents per bushel, is equal to $9,33. We see 

 by this, that less than two pounds of meal cooked 

 made one pound of pork. Old corn was used, 

 which is far better than new. One bushel of it 

 fed to swine, in July or August, is worth nearly 

 as much as two of new corn, fed in November. 



In tryiug experiments, there are a good many 

 things to be thought of aud taken into account. 

 There is a great diff'erence in breeds of hogs ; 

 some require only a small amount of food to fat- 

 ten them, while others require a large amount. A 

 hog of the right breed and disposition will eat its 

 food and lie down satisfied, while a laud-pike sort 

 of a hog will eat all it can get, and squeal the rest 

 of the time. The same amount of meal that would 



fatten one hog of a good breed, would go but little 

 way towards fattening another hog of a poor breed. 

 I think farmers are not particular enough in their 

 choice of breeds. If they go to purchase a horse, 

 they are very particular to get a IMorgan or Black 

 Hawk ; but in purchasing pigs, they generally 

 purchase those that they can buy the cheapest. 

 Mr. B. thinks that mush may satisfy at first, but 

 that it needs something that will stick by the ribs 

 to finish off with. I have seen pigs fattened so fat 

 on mush, that they could scarcely stand on their 

 feet, and that is as fat as I want hog?. I still con- 

 tend that it is the most economical way to fatten 

 pigs on cooked meal. But, says one, you do not 

 get pay for your extra labor ; let us see about that : 

 When raw corn is fed to hogs they do not grind 

 more than two-thirds of it, so one-third of it is 

 lost. Will that one-third saved by grinding and 

 cooking, ])ay for the extra labor, or not ? I think 

 it will, and when we take into account the extra 

 labor of cultivating that third, we cannot come to 

 any other conclusion, if we are willing lo admit 

 the truth, but that it is the most economical and 

 correct way, in New England, and in every State 

 where corn is worth from 70 to 90 cents per bush- 

 el, to grind and cook it for swine. In some parts 

 of the western States, where they use corn for fu- 

 el, because it is cheaper than coal or wood, it will 

 not ])ay to cook it. 



Mr. B. refers us to the Post-Office Reports of 

 1851, where a few W'esterr men give it as their 

 opinion, that it v/ill not pay for them to even shell 

 their corn to feed. I suppose ]Mr. B. is aware, as 

 well as myself, that, at the time they wrote, corn 

 was worth in the Western States from 12 to 20 

 cents per bushel, shelled ; and pork from $2 to $3 

 per hundred pounds. Coi-n has been so abundant 

 tliere, some years, that it v.-ould scarcely pay to 

 harvest it, and send it to market. Under those 

 circumstances, where corn is scarcely worth har- 

 vesting, I do not contend that it would pay to 

 cook it to feed any kind of stock. 



Here, in New Eugland, it costs some labor to 

 raise a bushel of corn ; therefore we should use 

 economy, and feed it in the w'ay that it will do the 

 most good. O. P. Mead. 



Middlebury, VL, Feb., 1863. 



Best Time to Feed Graix to Sheep. — Noon 

 is preferred to morning for this purpose by a cor- 

 respondent of the Countrij Genilcinan; for three 

 reasons : First, because, at noon, their appetites 

 are partly satisfied, and therefore the stronger 

 ones will crowd the weaker ones less than they 

 would do in the morning ; second, because sheep 

 will eat the coarser fodder better before eating 

 grain than afterwards ; and, third, because, by eat- 

 ing at noon, the grain will be better mingled with 

 the coarser fodder already swallowed, and be more 

 likely to rise with their cuds for thorough masti- 

 cation, by which the greatest amount of nutriment 

 will be extracted from a given amount of food. 



The California flood of January, 1802, Mas the 

 highest known in the State for centuries. This is 

 proved by the fact that Indian mounds of great 

 depth, bearing unmistakable evidence of great an- 

 tiquity in the large oaks growing upon them, were 

 almost entirely carried away, trees and all. 



