160 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



weights, pine ash affords four times more alkali 

 than the ash of hard wood." At the same time a 

 bushel of hard wood ashes yields more alkali than 

 a bushel of pine wood ashes ; the ash of the pine 

 being much the lightest. According to analysis 

 only aljont 13.^ parts m a hundred of hard wood 

 ashes are "solul>le," while of the yellow pine tifty 

 parts are soluble. 



We mention this as there is frequently a neglect 

 in preserving the ash of soft woods, under the idea 

 that it contains very little potash. In many towns, 

 where large quantities of lumber are sawed out, 

 hundreds of cords of saw dust are lying waste. 

 We know of a single lumber yard where there are 

 probably thousands of cords. Would it not oe 

 economical to set suitaljle heaps on tire, for the 

 value of the ash which would be left, although the 

 quantity of ash from pine is much less than from 

 hard wood ? 



muscle, and has become a competition of science 

 and intelligence." 



Tlie purpose of Mr. Hoar's bill is to establish bj' 

 national authority a common school system which 

 shall instruct all children of school age in the or- 

 dinary knowledge of reading, writing and arith- 

 metic, in those States which fail or refuse to make 

 such provisions bj' State authority. It would 

 seem that some such coercion as this is absolutely 

 necessary, if as shown, some fve or six million of 

 our adult population are unaljle to read and write. 



OFFICERS OF AG'L SOCIETIES. 



CoNToocooK, N. H. — Annual meeting at Hills- 



boro' Bridge. The treasurer reported #'693.12 on 



hand. 



Presidvnt — Moody McIIvin, Antrim Branch. 

 Vici' i>f.v/(/(;'('.s— Krastus H. Bartlett, Deering; Wil- 

 liam Merrill, Hillsboro' Bridge. 



Secretar-y — Daniel Johnson, Weare. 

 Treasurer — Edwin B. Morse, Ilillsboro' Bridge. 



White River Vam-ey, Yt.— President, Dudley C. 

 Denison, of lloyalton. Viee Preside7its,\i.'H.. Tupper, 

 of Rochester, and \Vm. C. Danforth, of Barnard. Sec- 

 retary, Lorenzo Kent, Woodstock. Treasurer, Merrick 

 Sylvester, Bethel. Auditor, G. E. E. Sparhawk, Gays- 

 yille. 



North Penobscot, Me. — Pres., W. R. Hersey; Sec, 

 E. A. Cliftbrd, Lincoln. 



NOBLESBORO Club, Me. — Pres., J. F. Sanford; Sec, 

 . J. B. Ham. 



Sidney Club, Me.— iVe«., W. A. P. Dillingham; 

 Sec, J. S. Grant, Sidney Centre. 



Somerset Central, Me.— Pr«s., Hon. A. Coburn; 

 Sec, W. }i. Snow. 



A Hint ox Horse-.shoeing. — A writer in the 

 Western Rural says that a horse's shoes can be 

 kept sharp at aljout one-half the usual cost by 

 having the smith drive a small piece of cast-steel 



. into each heel calk, and two into each toe. They 

 can be cut conveniently from a strip of steel five- 

 eights or three-fourtl>s of an inch wide, and can be 



i easily put into the toe calk while the shoe is being 

 made. After the shoe is fitted, the calk should be 



. hardened so that the steel will be as hard as a file. 



Edvcation. — In a speech recently in the House 

 . of Representatives at Washington, by the lion. 

 . George F. Hoak, of Massachusetts, to establish a 

 . system of national education, — he said : "The best 

 . education is that which an individual derives from 

 himself. Next to that comes the education of the 

 family. Next comes that administered and con- 

 trolled by the districts or the towns." 

 , In a brief reference to agriculture he said : — 

 ■"•Agiiculture has ceased to be a mere toil of human 



EXPERIMENTS IN FEEDING HOGS. 



Hon. L. W. Stuart, of ]\Ionmonth, Iowa, 

 sends Tlie Prairie Farmer the following ac- 

 count of careful experiments in swine fatten- 

 ing, made by himself last fall. It will be 

 found of great interest, and will tend to set- 

 tle some hitherto unsettled points in feeding. 

 Mr. S. says : 



I commenced my expei'iments October 24th, 

 1870, by weighing twenty hogs. With the 

 exception of four, they were one year old in 

 October and September. They had been fed 

 two weeks previous to weighing for the ex- 

 periment. The weight was 4,070 pounds. 

 They were put upon the scales and weighed 

 every Monday morning during, the experi- 

 ment. There was also an accurate account 

 kept of the feed consumed each week, reck- 

 oning 56 pounds for a bushel of corn or meal. 

 They were fed in a floored pen, and in 

 troughs so arranged that no feed was wasted. 

 Their sleeping apartments were also well pro- 

 vided with wheat and straw. They also had 

 the range of a small lot. When they wert 

 fed on dry feed they were supplied with 

 plenty of water. They were fed regularly 

 three times per day. The experiments were 

 continued for seventy days, closing on the 

 second day of January, 1871 ; which day I 

 sold them for five cents per pound. I take 

 this as a basis for calculation in making up my 

 estimates. The sum total in corn consumed 

 in conducting my experiments the seventy 

 days was 232 bushels. The net gain on the 

 twenty hogs was 2,817 pounds, a trifle 'over 

 two pounds per head per day. The weight at 

 the time of selling was 6,887 pounds. The 

 result of feeding was as follows : 



They were fed twenty-eight days on dry 

 shelled corn, and consumed i'ighty -three 

 bushels ; made a net gain of 8;)7 pounds, 

 which is ecjuivalent to 18.00 pounds ])er bush- 

 el, which sold my corn thus fed, at fifty cents 

 and four mills per bushel. 



Tliey were fed fourteen days on meal, 

 ground fine and fed dry, and consumed forty- 

 seven bushels ; made a net gain of 553 pounds, 

 which is equivalent to 11.76 pounds to one 

 bushel of corn, which brought my corn to 58 

 cents and 8 mills per bushel. 



They were fed fourteen days on meal mix- 

 ed up with cold water, and consumed 55 1-2 

 bushels ; made a net gain of 731 pounds, 



