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THE ILLINOIS FA.R:MER. 



267 



fcreace between the Jlesli of swine spoken 

 of by Moses, and the grain fed porZ- of Eu- 

 rope and America. The swine of Syria in 

 the days of Moses, as well as the present 

 day, are not domesticated. They run at 

 large, and are a disgusting looking animal, 

 with no hair or bristles, and their skins 

 scaly and scabby, with blotches and foul 

 running sores. The fat when melted does 

 not become lard, but a turbid oil with a most 

 offensive odor. In that climate nature is 

 profuse in her productions, and rapid in her 

 changes. If animal life is profuse, so is 

 death, and garbage and carrion abound in 

 the daily wanderings of the swine, and the 

 swino feed on it. By persons of wealth the 

 rites of sepulture are as carefully performed 

 as in any country, and the ^cemeteries are 

 protected. But the mass of the people are 

 poor and squalid, and when they die, if they 

 receive any burial, it is but a foot or two of 

 sand that covers them, which offers but a 

 slight impediment to the hogs, dogs, and vul- 

 tures who wrangle over their corpses. The 

 loathsome leper deserted while living, dies 

 when he falls down by the highway, and his 

 remains corrupt even in life, are devoured 

 by the swine in the full ripeness of corrup- 

 tion. The hog was in the days of Moses, 

 and is now in that country the general scav- 

 enger, and his maw was, and is, the tomb of 

 the poor and unfortunates whose remains lie 

 exposed without the gates of the cities. 



Outside of the walls of Jerusalem is that 

 Pottersfield, which was bought with the 

 thirty pieces of silver paid for our Saviour's 

 blood, and which has ever since been held in 

 execration by all men as accursed ground. — 

 A charnel-house is within its borders. It is 

 called a charnel-house, but is a large open 

 pit into which for centuries past, and to the 

 present day are thrown the bodies, unconfin- 

 ed and unshrouded, of those who can obtain 

 no other burial. This charnel-house, this 

 abominable place, is not protected from the 

 beasts of the field, or the birds of the air. 

 Common decency forbids me to say more. 



Need any other resons be given why the 

 Israelites abhorred the flesh of swine? — 

 When a hog put flesh upon his bones by 

 picking it off the bones of a diseased Jew, 

 for Jews to turn round and eat the flesh of 

 the hog, would be but one remove from 

 eating their own dead; and therefore it was 

 that a Jew of Syria would suffer death, 

 rather than eat the polluted flesh of swine. 

 In view of these facts it is only strange that 

 any command human or divine was needed 

 upon the subject; but we are told in Isaiah 

 that the Gentiles sometimes eat the flesh of 

 swine. But throughout that country at the 

 present day this meat is abhorred by all men 

 without distinction of nation, sect or caste. 

 Now to call this flesh of Syrian swine by 

 the respectable name of pork, is almost as 

 absurd as It would be to call the flesh of the 



hyena veal. The meat of the grain-fed hogs, 



and that only, is what I call pork. The hogs 

 of England and the United States have come 

 down to us from a long line of pure ances- 

 try, and have not a drop of that polluted 

 Syrian blood in their veins, and no more 

 wholesome meat can be eaten than good 

 pork. And a New England farmer without 

 a supply of pork in his cellar, is as sure to 



become bankrupt as a bank without specie in 

 its vaults. 



In the neighborhood of our large cities I 

 have seen slaughter-houses where numbers of 

 swine were fed on the animal garbage and 

 offal, and in due time the hogs were killed, 

 sent to market called pork, and somebody 

 eats it. Now I will not say that they who 

 eat it will have scrofula, cancer, tape-worms, 

 or even a colic, but I will only remark that 

 for my own eating I prefer pork fed on 

 corn. 



Good corn-fed pork, and rye, and Indian 

 meal is now supplying the bone, muscle, and 

 sinew, the brain and the nerve which is to be 

 the strength and virtue of our future history. 

 Strong men are now being reared upon this 

 food, who will fill the places of our giants of 

 old. The dandies and shop-clerks of our 

 cities, can never fill their places. They will 

 be filled from the homes of toil and industry; 

 from the farm and the village school. ''Those 

 who labor in the earth," said Thomas Jeffer- 

 son, '"'are the chosen people of God," and 

 so said the Bible before him. And if in 

 His wisdom another crisis is to arrive in the 

 nation like that of 1776, our heroes will, as 

 they spring up, not from amid the refine- 

 ments of the city, (for in the slim waist of a 

 city belle there is not room enough for a 

 hero,) but from the strong loins of hardy 

 men and women ; they will be the offspring 

 of those who will till the soil, and earn their 

 daily bread by their daily labor ; who live 

 frugal and temperate lives, and the chief of 

 whose food is the fruits and vegetables of 

 their orchards, and gardens, and rye and 

 Indian bread, and 'pork." 



■ aas 



Information Wanted. 



Editor of the Farmer : — Our lands are 

 generally too wet to plow and it is still 

 raining, and we begin to think seriously 

 of contriving some way to drain our low 

 lands. And as it would probably be of 

 some interest to a great rnany of your 

 readers, we would like to obtain some 

 information through your valuable paper 

 in regard to the ditching done with the 

 under-ground or mole ditcher. Several 

 of us iu this vicinity would like to club 

 together and buy a machine if we were 

 all convinced of the adaptability and 

 durability of the work. J. II. 



Taylor viLLE, 111.; April 21st. 



We hope that Mr. Hensley, of Island 

 Grove, or some other gentleman who 

 has operated with the mole plow will 

 answer the above inquiries, through this 

 paper. 



"Draining lands," tliat is the word 

 with our farmers. It is utter folly to 

 rely on obtaining crops on our flat, wet 

 lands without draining. As a general 

 fact, our springs are not favorable for 

 farm work. If flat lands are in order 

 for early planting or sowing, it is not the 

 rule but the exception. 



We do not suppose our farmers are 

 able to go into a general system of .un- 



derdraining with tiles. They may do a 

 good deal with the mole plow; but they 

 can do a good deal more by surface 

 draining. We know of flat lands made 

 comparatively dry by surface draining. 

 The amount of water carried off by sur- 

 face drains, where made of the proper 

 depth and width, is perfectly surprising. 

 It seems to usthatunderdraining, on our 

 prairies, would be entirely inadequate 

 to carry oflT the waters accumulated from 

 heavy and continual rains — such as we 

 have in spring — in any reasonable time. 

 We say to farmers — lessen your farms 

 — drain your lands — cultivate thorough- 

 ly by deep plowing -when practicable — 

 do all work well — and your crops will 

 pay when half culti7ation will be a fail- 



ure. 



Soft Maples. — These grow rapidly 

 and make handsome trees. They will 

 bear seeds in five years after planting. 

 The seeds mature in June. The trees 

 can be found on low lands. Gather the 

 seeds when they begin to fall from the 

 trees. Plow up a quarter of an acre of 

 ground. Sow them broadcast, if you 

 like; in drills it would be better. They 

 will come up the present season and 

 grow a foot or more high. In two years 

 they will be large enough to transplant, 

 and they will grow right ahead. A man 

 who lives on a Prairie Farm, in this way 

 can stock his farm with trees in five 

 years that will make a good show and 

 prove a far better investment than 

 fruit trees from Rochester nurseries. 



The OsAaE Orange. — There is a far 

 greater call for these plants this spring 

 thau ever before. Most of the plants 

 now to be had are two years old. But 

 little seed was planted last year. Those 

 who plant seed this year will reap a 

 harvest next — for we are confident that 

 next year there will not be a sufficient 

 supply of plants to meet the demand. 



— — **" ■ . < 



Early Vegetables. — These must not 

 be lost sight of. Early Peas, early 

 Beets, early Horn Carrots, early York 

 Cabbage, the fine kidney Potatoes, early 

 six week Beans, early Turnip, early 

 Radish — mature for the table two or 

 three weeks before the common varieties 

 of these vegetables. 



<••- 



Apple Pie Melon.— Who will send 

 us half a dozen reeds of this melon '/ 



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