198 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTUKE AND COTTAGKE GARDEHBS. 



[ March 10, 1363. 



SALT NOT BENEFICIAL TO PIGS. 



I HAVE had to do with pigs more or less for fully forty years, 

 and for the last twenty-five years have bred and fed not a few 

 for my own consumption, and to sell to private families. I have 

 read everything I could find about the management of pigs, and 

 tried many sorts of food and different ways of feeding. Amongst 

 others I have tried salt, although I had seen its injurious effects 

 as I have stated at page 753, in the volume just concluded. 



It will be remembered, that in Vol. XXVI., page 188, there is 

 a paper read by Mr. Stearn, of Brandeston, Suffolk, on the 

 management, breeding, and feeding of pigs, and to my mind he 

 is the best authority on the subject I am acquainted with. He 

 sprinkles salt on the food for his young pigs, and it may seem 

 in the opinion of some to be rather daring to condemn salt in 

 the face of such an authority : yet I do, and I will endeavour to 

 make it appear why in as clear a way as I can. 



In the first place, I am quite aware that to salt a pig's food 

 as a man would salt his own porridge will do a pig no harm when 

 the pig has become used to it ; but the question is, Does it do him 

 any good ? I say it does not, so far as my experience goes ; 

 and in the next place I have had plenty of proof on several 

 occasions of the injurious effects that brine has had on pigs when 

 thrown in the swill-tub, even when there has been no saltpetre 

 in it. 



As regards boiled potatoes salted down in large quantities to 

 be used as wanted, which was, I suspect, what Mr. Pearson did, 

 and which was the case with the potatoes and pigs referred to at 

 page 753, I will show from experience that the same quantity of 

 salt given to a pig — that is, sprinkled over his food at the time 

 of feeding and mixed up with it — which would do him neither 

 good nor harm then, would do him a serious injury if mixed 

 in the same proportions and put two or three hogsheads of it 

 together, and allowed to stand a month or two before being used. 



In 1855 I had a quantity of bad potatoes ; and knowing if I 

 did not boil them all up at once I should lose a great bulk of 

 food, knowing also that salt does not make pigs ill if given as 

 above stated, and thinking that others had been too bountiful in 

 the use of it, I determined to try an experiment for myself, but 

 at the same time had no faith whatever in the good effects of salt. 



I have a tub that measures 3 feet 9 inches at bottom, 4 feet 

 9 inches at top, and 3 feet deep ; and as it was the first week in 

 August and I did not want to begin feeding my pigs till the first 

 week in October, I determined to fill the tub with potatoes, and 

 salt them down as I term it. First, I put potatoes in when 

 boiled, and smashed them till they were 1 foot up the tub and 

 quite solid and level on the surface. I then sprinkled salt all 

 over the surface. I next smaehed-in another tub, and filled into 

 the large one 1 foot more, with salt as before ; then another 

 layer 1 foot thick, likewise with Bait, and that filled the tub. I 

 put no more salt, according to the quantity of potatoes, than I 

 should have put on potatoes that I was going to eat myself, and, 

 consequently, no more than might have been put in a pig's meal 

 at the time of feeding, and given without any ill effects. 



When I had used up all the offal I had in the shape of 

 brewers' grains and refuse from the kitchen and garden, the 

 salted potatoes had then stood two months, and my pigs were 

 about 11 score a-piece and half fat. I then began giving those 

 salted potatoes mixed with beanmeal. I dug the potatoes out 

 of the tub with a spade»into a bucket, then put to them the 

 beanmeal and as much water as made the whole about the con- 

 sistency that a bricklayer would use his mortar. This was given 

 to the pigs, and all went on well enough to outward appearance ; 

 still I thought they did not cat their food with that relish they 

 used to do. Neither could I see that they went on any better 

 than my pigs used to do with the same food without salt ; but 

 nothing happened till they had eaten about halfway down the tub, 

 then came the grand secret. 



I fed as usual at night. I put the food over the wall into the 

 trough ; it was dusk, and as I was not aware of anything amies 

 I did not go again till breakfast-time next morning, and then to 

 see my pigs in the same plight that I had seen other folks' from 

 the same cause ! Xhey had not eaten all their supper, and there 

 they were scouring all up the walb and about the sty, opening 

 their mouths as wide as they oould, then champing their jaws 

 together, then gaping again, then champing, which told me they 

 were sick at stomach. I knew at once what was the cau3e, and 

 the effect was plain enough, and all I had to do was to remedy 

 the evil in the quickest and best way I could. 



As soon as I had time I examined the potatoes that were left 

 in the tub, and the place I had taken out their allowance was 



filled up with stuff in a liquid state. I tasted it, likewise put 

 some potatoes in my mouth and chewed them. Both were alike 

 of a nasty brackish taste, a good deal like the mineral water I 

 have tasted either at Brighton or Malvern, but forget which, or 

 like water that a lot of rusty old iron had lain in for some time. 

 It did not taste as salted porridge would, and it is fresh in my 

 memory to this moment. I dug down to the bottom of the tub, 

 turned it over, and found the potatoes the Bame throughout. 

 It is natural to suppose if there had been no salt used that 

 the potatoes at the bottom of the tub would have been more 

 moist than at the top, after standing so long ; and my humble 

 opinion is, that the salt put on the top when the tub was full, 

 gradually settled down with the moisture that the potatoes con- 

 tained, and took the second lot of salt with it about G inches 

 lower than where it waB put, and that, with the next lot of salt 

 and the moisture from the potatoes, had formed brine enough to 

 well saturate the potatoes for about 18 inches from the bottom 

 of the tub. I am satisfied that brine either from animal or 

 vegetable substances, is injurious, if not poison, to pigs, and it 

 is probable that if my pigs had been strong stores just brought 

 in from where they had not been half fed, and eaten eagerly, as 

 they would have done, to their fill, it would have killed them 

 outright. I think it will be seen that salt acts quite differently 

 when used in different ways, and why, I will leave wiser heads 

 than mine to determine. 



Now for Mr. Pearson's question, why I think salt is not good 

 for a pig, if it dses him no particular harm ; and the reason is, 

 because it is not in the nature of a pig to eat or lick salt with 

 his own free will like sheep or cattle, whenever they come in 

 contact with it. Between the years 1845 and 1855 I lived for 

 five years near some saltworks in Worcestershire, and on the 

 premises there had been some new buildings put up, and at certain 

 times of the year the face of the bricks for 2 feet or so from the 

 ground would be incrusted all over and quite white with salt. 

 Whenever the sheep or cattle came into the field adjoining 

 these walls they would at once begin licking this salt off, and 

 although we had in general from fifteen to fifty pigs that were at 

 liberty to do the same, I never saw one do it. Again : The 

 canal came through our fields, and at the locks the salt-boats would 

 often stop and put out lots of salt to alter the arrangement of 

 their cargo, and to stow away the fresh meat for their voyage ; 

 consequently, there were often lots of salt strewed on the 

 large stones that were round the looks, and I have seen the 

 sheep and cattle go and lick all the salt up as clean as if it had 

 been washed off; but the pigs had the run of the same fields, 

 and I have watched their proceedings, and they would walk over 

 these stones without taking the slightest notice of the salt. I 

 should have stated, that the pigs would rub themselves against the 

 above-mentioned wall without notice of the salt, and I venture 

 to say that pigs, dogs, poultry, and ferrets will thrive without 

 salt. — Woecestee. 



OUE LETTEE BOX. 



Black Bantams' Combs {J. X.).— There is no fixed comb for a Black 

 Bantam. It may be double, or single, or cupped. The lutter would be no 

 proof of impurity, because "wherever there are single there will sometimes 

 be cupped combs. It is a very common thing for the Sebrights to show all 

 sorts of combs. "We have seen them so curious as to be ridiculous, and look 

 more like a thing made in sport than a production of Nature. A cupperl- 

 comb is not desirable, nor would the possessor of it be likely to be a prize- 

 taker. 



Brahma Pootiias.— We are informed that letters directed to Mr. Har- 

 greaves, Bacup, Lancashire, have been returned from the dead-letter office. 



Covering Bee-hives {Mr, J. Fenn). — Covering tliem with stable litter, 

 as recommended by Mr. Payne in " Bee-keeping for the Many," is an ex- 

 periment which we have never tried, but we should say, Keep them covered 

 until tbe nights cease to be cold, or until the bees become sufficiently 

 numerous to set tbe cold at defiance. 



Ventilation — "Wintering Bees in Glass Htves (5. TT.).— If you will 

 reperuse my communication in pages 159 and 160, I think you will find it 

 sufficiently explicit. 3Iy mode of ventilation i», however, inapplicable to 

 bar-and-sltde hives. Perhaps the best plan with these hives would be to 

 draw out one or two slides on each side, and cover the apertures with 

 perforated zinc. I never attempt to winter bees in glass hives, but always 

 shift them in the autumn into wooden boxes. The late Dr. Bevan informed 

 me that he once succeeded in keeping bees alive through the winter in a 

 unicomb-hive, which was placed in his drawing-room, and well protected 

 by woollen wrappers. — A, Devonsutbe Bee-keeper. 



"Work on Bees {An Old-fashioned Bee-keeper). — If you will send to our 

 office five postage stamps, with your direction, and ordering "Bee-keep- 

 ing," you will have it free by post, and it contains what you require. 



Loss of Hair on Dogs (Jl. C).— Your hairless two-3 ear-old Toy Ter- 

 rier, desconded from a blue tan grandsire similarly bare, probably never 

 will have any hair. The ointment we mentioned last week would not in- 

 jure ycur dog, just enough to grease the surface being used at a time ; but 

 we con hold out no hope of its producing a crop of hair. 



