240 Transactions of the American Institute. 



May 2, 1871. 



The regular session of the Club was held on Tuesday at one o'clock 

 p. m. Nathan C. Ely, Esq., the president of the Club, called the 

 meeting to order ; Mr. John W. Chambers filling the post of perma- 

 nent secretary. 



Hog Raising. 



Mr. Richard Skinner, Athens, Texas. — I write to congratulate Dr. 

 J. V. C. Smith upon his late heresy vindicating nature's laws respect- 

 ing the animal creation, and especially the hog. I am satisfied that 

 like many other things at one time denominated heresy, it will 

 become one of the first principles of the established church. I have 

 practiced the same heresy for the last fifteen years, never during that 

 time having confined a hog to a " stye " or close pen. Nor have I 

 killed or eaten one that might be considered a "gob of fat." If he 

 weighs 200 pounds at two or three years old, that will do. I 

 could write a lengthy dissertation upon hog-raising in this county and 

 State, but desist. Our pork costs us about on an average three and a 

 half cents per pound. I found from observation many years ago that 

 the hog fattened in a stye or close pen, and made so fat that he could 

 scarcely stand up, when killed had a diseased liver, and frequently 

 the kidneys literally riddled with kidney worms. I also imagined 

 that the meat smelt of the pig stye. jSTow, when I fatten upon corn, 

 I let the hogs run in an open field, or, if penned, give them a large,, 

 roomy one, and instead of cooking their food I give them a variety, 

 some raw, some soaked, and soured, etc. The hogs make their own 

 beds and exercise as they see fit. I have just such meat as I desire. 

 Although he can be fattened faster on cooked food and in a close 

 pen, I believe it bad economy. Bestow the same labor and cost on 

 a greater number and let them run and grow a year longer and you 

 will find that you have as much meat, and that that is healthier, and 

 also a heavy increase in the number of your stock. Ask any of the 

 learned gentlemen of your deservedly famous Club if he ever 

 ate any of the bacon of a hog that was fattened upon fish? 

 If so, did it not taste fishy ? Again, of a hog raised and fattened 

 at a distillery. Did not the meat taste like the odor of whisky? 

 And again, if fastened exclusively in the horse lot, did he not 

 imagine that the meat had some of the odor of the stable about it ? 

 In all such cases it is necessary to put the hog up and feed him on 

 proper fo.od if you want palatable meat. In this country we fatten 

 on corn, peas, slops, etc., one year in four, and partially one year in 



