64 



THE SOUTHE 



RN PLANTER. 



horses fall dead lame without the farrier being 

 able to assign any cause for it, although he will 

 talk dogmatically enough on the subject to con- 

 found those who know no better than himself. 



For the Southern Planter. 

 HOGS. 



Mr. Editor, — Although I am not a very 

 young farmer, yet I have never undertaken to 

 raise hogs in sties till within the last two years. 

 I had observed the success which had attended 

 the efforts of others. I had particularly attended 

 to what my old friend, the Rev. Jesse Turner, 

 had said on the subject, in whose experience and 

 good sense I placed much reliance. I had ex- 

 amined his arrangements for the accommodation 

 of swine, and with great confidence and ardor 

 constructed my sties upon his plan and pursued 

 as rigidly as circumstances would permit his 

 whole system. One of the things which most 

 attracted my attention and with which I was 

 most pleased, was the prospect of raising a large 

 amount of manure, which would compensate 

 me for the expense of the pork. As I before 

 remarked, my sties are constructed after the 

 plan prescribed by Mr. Turner, of the best ma- 

 terials and in the best style — six in number, with 

 an area of 54 by 21 feet in front, in which the 

 hogs are permitted to range occasionally for ex- 

 ercise, particularly the sows and pigs. The 

 sties as well as the yard are kept well supplied 

 with leaves and other litter to be converted into 

 manure, and removed as soon as it is sufficiently 

 worked up by the hogs. They are w T ell fur- 

 nished with vegetable and other food, according 

 to the season of the year. 



I would here remark, that there is no food on 

 which 1 have fed my hogs more profitably in 

 summer than fresh cut clover. They eat it 

 with great avidity and thrive rapidly upon it. 



The result of my experience and observation 

 in this matter, is this: That the successful rais- 

 ing of hogs and manure are incompatible with 

 each other, to a certain extent, and that the sty 

 system rigidly carried out, as we practice it in 

 this part of Virginia, will not answer. Perhaps 

 on those farms where there are extensive dairies, 

 or some other circumstances which vary the 

 system, it may be attended with different results. 

 My sows bring their pigs about the first of 

 March, and grow off very finely till they are 

 about four or five weeks old, when they are ob- 

 served to begin to cough and wheeze, and to 

 rub and scratch themselves. From that time 

 they become mangy and lousy, and continue to 

 decline. They are permitted to go out of the 

 enclosure at their pleasure, but of course are 

 most commonly within, with their mothers, and 

 sleep within. 



Various remedies have been used to cure them, 



but they all prove to be only temporary. My 

 older hogs also suffer more or less with mange 

 and vermin, and although they can be relieved 

 by such applications as are recommended, yet 

 as in the other case it is only temporary. I 

 know with most persons, as it has been with 

 me, the idea of mangy and verminous hogs is 

 associated' with bad feeding or want of cleanli- 

 ness, but such was not the case with mine. — 

 The secret, in my opinion, lies in this. We are 

 too often inattentive to the provisions and eco- 

 nomy of nature. He who has attended to the 

 habits of the hog, will see that he delights (in 

 the summer particularly,) in the running stream, 

 to wallow in the mud, and to sleep where he 

 can receive the cool and refreshing showers. — - 

 And to my mind there is nothing so well calcu- 

 lated to disturb and destroy vermin and mange 

 as these things. What is the mange but a hard 

 and scaly eruption of the skin, arising most 

 generally perhaps from the irritation produced 

 by fleas and lice ? Who has not seen that hogs 

 which lie about granaries and straw', have 

 mange — situations most calculated to engender 

 and retain those insects? But perhaps the re- 

 medy will point out the true nature of the dis- 

 ease. In numerous instances I have turned out 

 those which were affected with the above named 

 maladies, into a lot where they could indulge in 

 the water and the mud, and with the same, or 

 perhaps less food, they w r ould very soon recover 

 and get fat. 



Now, sir, I believe it is impossible to keep 

 your sties littered in summer, so as to insure 

 you manure worth your trouble, without at the 

 same time generating vermin and disease, to 

 the destruction of your young hogs and the 

 great injury of the old ones. If this be true, 

 then my position is also true, that the successful 

 raising of hogs in sties, and the raising of ma- 

 nure, are incompatible. 



The system which I have chalked out for 

 myself and which has been founded on the ob- 

 servation and experience of the last two years, 

 is this: As soon as my sows have their pigs, I 

 shall at least in the day, and in mild weather, 

 (for they delight in cool weather to bask in the 

 warm sun,) turn them into a lot provided with 

 water. I shall rear them there, except as the 

 cool weather or their protection may require 

 them to be styed till the time when I shall put 

 them up to fatten. From that time, I shall keep 

 the sties well littered, as I believe at that sea- 

 son of the year vermin are not so easily gener- 

 ated, and the age and constitution of the hogs 

 are better able to resist them. 



I would here remark, that I found the sty con- 

 structed after Mr. Turners plan too confined, 

 and I knocked off the front of that part where 

 it w T as intended for them to sleep, which greatly 

 improved it. 



In expressing my views on this subject I have 



