1864. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



167 



leaner kinds are workers, and, when the manufac- 

 ture of manure is an object, the working animal, 

 although he may not fat so readily or on so small 

 a quantity of food, will, in the end, prove the most 

 profitable. They, therefore, have no objection to 

 those long-snouted, raw-boned fellows, that are 

 capable of turning a furrow like an old-fashioned 

 plow, and which are as restless and as adverse to 

 sleep in the daytime as a witch is said to be in the 

 moonlight of a night in autumn. By selecting 

 animals of this description, and providing them 

 with plenty of food and materials, they will not 

 only furnish us with a most valuable article of 

 manure, but they will also fill the meat barrels 

 with good and profitable pork." 



We do not believe the doctrine, or practice its 

 teachings. It is not economical, or consistent 

 with other practices of the farm. The farmer 

 who half starves his long-legged, raw-boned racer 

 in order to make him work over the manure, does 

 not act upon the same principle with his oxen that 

 he is fatting for the shambles, or his own beef 

 barrel. By no means. He supplies every means 

 of comfort for them in his power. Gives them a 

 dry bed, an agreeable temperature, a variety of 

 nutritious food, and just enough exercise intheopen 

 air to make their blood flow briskly through their 

 veins. And this is the true course, both with cat- 

 tle and swine. 



Well fed hogs may go upon the common ma- 

 nure heap with perfect propriety. They will turn 

 it over somewhat, but no more than is sufficient 

 to give them a healthful exercise. They should 

 have ample room, access to the sun, a perfectly dry 

 bed to go to when they please, and one that can 

 be made dark in hot weather, so tha.t they may 

 escape the annoyance of flies. They should then 

 be supplied, during the whole growing season, 

 with an abundance of fresh, succulent vegetables, 

 both for their own use, to absorb their droppings, 

 and to increase the mass of manure. Sods, swamp 

 muck, forest scrapings, leaves, chip manure, 

 brakes, flags, ferns, weeds, &c, together with every 

 species of spurious or refuse vegetation, should 

 be gathered and thrown to the animals, a little at 

 a time, to feed from and root over as much as 

 they feel inclined to do, after having received two 

 or three hearty meals each day. 



The matter formed by the decomposition of 

 these substances, together with the solid excre- 

 ments of the animals, and the saline and earthy 

 matters contained in the liquid voidings, will con- 

 stitute one of the most valuable manures that can 

 be applied to the soil, and will produce excellent 

 effects on all descriptions of crops, whether of 

 roots or grains. This mass will, of course, need 

 an occasional turning over, but a man with a good 

 fork, will do more of it in one hour of each week 

 than the lean hog will in seven days. We let the 



hog, therefore, exercise as much as his instincts 

 prompt him to in order to preserve health, and 

 sleep away most of the time in the warm sun's 

 rays in cold weather, or in his retired and cool 

 bedroom in the hot days and nights. 



During the first six months of his life, he should 

 not be fed to fatness, but with a variety of flesh 

 making food, such as skim milk, vegetables, roots, 

 and plenty of short, fresh grass, cut when not 

 more than an inch or two high, and fed a little of 

 it several times a day through the entire summer. 

 In the cooler weather of October and November, 

 corn and corn meal may be given him, and for 

 six weeks before slaughtering as much of the lat- 

 ter, slightly salted, daily, as he will eat, together 

 with as much pure cold water as he will drink, 

 once each day. 



The pork of such a hog, if properly dressed, 

 salted and preserved, will be as sweet as any nut 

 that was ever cracked, and in our opinion, as 

 wholesome and nutritions as beef or any other 

 flesh. 



NEW BOOKS. 



The Illustrated Horse Management, Containing descriptive 

 remarks upon Anatomy-, Medicine, Shoeing, Teeth, Food, 

 Vices, Stables ; likewise a plain account of the Situation, Na- 

 ture and Value of various Points, together with comments on 

 Grooms, Dealers, Breeders, Breakers and Trainers ; also on 

 Carriages and Harness. Embellished with more than 400 

 Engravings, from Original Designs made expressly for this 

 work. By Edward Mathew, M. R. C. V. S., author of the 

 ''illustrated Horse Doctor,'" and other works. Philadelphia: 

 J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1864. ; Boston: A. Williams & Co. 



We yield to few persons in our regard and at 

 tachment to ths horse. He is one of the most 

 useful servants of man, and, properly treated, is 

 one of the most profitable among them all. The 

 reader of these columns cannot have failed to no- 

 tice the numerous references we have made dur- 

 ing the past year to "Mayheio's Illustrated Horse 

 Doctor," and the engravings given, illustrating 

 some of the diseases and malformations of the 

 horse. We consider this the best work extant 

 upon the diseases of the horse. We now have 

 before us another work by the same author upon 

 the management of the horse, and a careful ex- 

 amination of it brings us to the opinion we formed 

 of the former volume, that this, also, is the best 

 work in our knowledge, upon the subjects of 

 which it treats. It is a much needed one, too. 

 It tells all about the proper and improper man- 

 agement of the horse under all circumstances, — 

 about the structure and economy of the animal, 

 his shoes, his food, his stable, his breeding, break- 

 ing and training. The chapter on "Points," and 

 where to look for their development, is worth the 

 price of the volume. 



Dr. Mayhew has probably had as much actual 

 experience and observation of the horse as any 

 person that lives. This is exhibited on every page 

 of his^book. His humanity and kind considera- 

 tion of the animal are as manifest, also, as the grea 



