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THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



Mr. Cotton is decidedly of opinion that it is the 

 rotting of peas that is the most general cause of 

 their being injurious to animals feeding on them. 

 But he also thinks that animals are killed in some 

 cases by eating voraciously of sound peas, and then 

 drinking, and the peas swelling greatly in the sto- 

 mach, and so causing great pain, and often death. 

 He knew of a horse, when hungry, breaking into 

 a field of black-eye (white) peas, when ripe and 

 dry, and quite sound. After eating as much as he 

 chose, the horse went to drink, and died before he 

 left the water's edge many yards. The white or 

 other tender peas, the most liable to rot when ex- 

 posed, also swell the most in the stomach. Neither 

 green (unripe) peas of this kind, nor dry and sound 

 peas of the hard kinds, (not easy to rot,) if eaten 

 as ravenously, would have killed any animal. 



70. Mr. Thomas P. Devereux, of Halifax, North 

 Carolina, raises peas very largely, both among corn, 

 and also separately, and also, after reserving an 

 abundant supply of pork, (at least 200 lbs. for every 

 worker, man, woman and child, and his family 

 supply,) sells a large surplus. His whole stock of 

 hogs are turned on the pea-fields, and no damage 

 found, or apprehended. He thinks that if hogs, 

 after getting fat, on any kind of food, are stinted, 

 or suffered to become poor, or are declining in con- 

 dition, they will be very apt to die; but not the 

 more so because of having been fattened on peas. 

 Also, if the peas are altogether of a tender kind, 

 and they rot — or if sprouting in a warm spell in 

 winter, and then the sprouts are killed by cold — in 

 either case they are injurious to hogs who feed 

 thereon. But even this danger is not incurred, if 

 there are plenty of sound and unsprouted peas. 

 For hogs exhibit, in a remarkable degree, discri- 

 mination and preference in the selection of their 

 food. If they have in the same field, for example, 

 Bass and cow-peas, (the latter grain very tender 

 and liable to rot, and the former the reverse — ) they 

 will not touch the Bass-peas as long as the cow-peas 

 are sound and in plenty. Also, they will not eat 

 either of the green or of sprouted or rotten peas, 

 though of a preferred kind, if they can find enough 

 of other dry and sound peas. Acting on the rule 

 of never letting fat hogs become poorer, he slaugh- 

 ters every one, even if less than half grown, that 

 is fat by Christmas. The remaining sows and pigs, 

 &c, continue on the pea-field until in March, if the 

 peas remain in plenty, which is always the case after 

 a good bearing year. AVherever there are many 

 hogs kept, of course it may be expected that some 

 will be diseased, and some will die. But Mr. D. 

 thinks that his losses by death have not been greater 

 from the hogs being fed on peas to such great ex- 

 tent as in his usual practice. He has not put other 

 kinds of stock on peas. 



71. Mr. Ellerbe, of Darlington District, S. 



Carolina, says that in that part of the country it is 

 the general opinion, and scarcely questioned by any, 

 that it is dangerous for store hogs (those not de- 

 signed to be killed as soon as fat,) to be fed on the 

 pea-field — as they will be liable to become diseased, 

 and many will die, during the following year. Si- 

 milar results are found in the year succeeding an 

 autumn when acorns, &c, have been very plentiful, 

 and the hogs have become fat in their woods range, 

 though not turned on peas. [This fact, or opinion, 

 was also stated by others.] The cow-pea is the 

 kind almost universally raised in Darlington — Avhich 

 is easy to rot in wet weather. The hogs designed 

 for slaughter only are put on the field, after the 

 torn has been gathered. No care or ro^Wir.™ 



used as to the hogs eating the peas, while remain- 

 ing thereon, except that they are supplied with 

 plenty of ashes, in which some salt is intermixed, 

 and which they eat freely. When nearly fat enough, 

 the hogs are fed on corn, to "harden the fat'' until 

 ready for slaughter. 



[However much difference of opinion and of 

 conclusions may appear in the several views ex- 

 pressed in the foregoing minutes, as to the injurious 

 effects of stock feeding on pea-fields, it seems to 

 me that there is enough of general agreement on 

 main points to reconcile these differences, and to 

 enable us to avoid the evils which many persons 

 have suffered under .so heavily. The inferences 

 which may be safely drawn from all the foregoing 

 testimony, seem to me to be as follows: 



1st. That rotten peas and pea-vines are always 

 dangerous as food, and frequently and quickly fatal 

 to the animals eating them in quantity. 



2d. That sound peas, alone, are not hurtful imme- 

 diately in any case — unless swallowed in large quan- 

 tity by very hungry animals, and then by swelling 

 in the stomach. 



3d. That the seemingly contradictory facts expe- 

 rienced, and also the opinions that certain kinds of 

 peas — and also any kinds grown on certain locali- 

 ties — are highly dangerous — while other kinds of 

 peas, and the growths of other places, are safe, or 

 much less dangerous — are to be explained and re- 

 conciled by the facts that certain kinds of peas are 

 much more liable to rot or sprout in wet weather — 

 and also that all growths of calcareous, close, and 

 rich or wet soils, are more liable to rot than those 

 of non-calcareous, sandy and dry soils. 



4th. That though sound peas, when not voraciously 

 eaten, are not spec dily injurious, the greater weight 

 of testimony makes the exclusive and full feeding 

 on peas to be injurious to hogs and cattle at later 

 times. Even this danger of future disease would 

 seem avoidable by using other food besides peas, 

 or by not permitting the animalsHo be more stinted 

 in food afterwards, and to become poorer. — E. 11. J 



Peas and Sweet Potatoes for Fattening Hogs. 

 72. Mr. Nathan Winslow, of Perquimons county, 

 fattens his hogs for slaughter and sale, as well as 

 for his own consumption, almost entirely on peas 

 and sweet potatoes. From the 1st to 15th of Sep- 

 tember, the hogs are turned on a pea-field. At the 

 same time, a small portion of the sweet potato 

 ground is fenced off. The wood-land is close at 

 hand, and the hogs are turned therein every day. 

 This is done, because he deems it better for the 

 health of the hogs. Every night, alternately the 

 hogs are turned into the pea-field and the potatoes — 

 new portions of the latter being brought in as the 

 first enclosed are exhausted. Thus kept, on peas 

 and potatoes alone (for he supposes they get very 

 little from the woods,) the hogs become very fat. 

 For change of food, and late in the fattening, swill 

 is added to the food, made of turnips, boiled with 

 a little corn-meal and seasoned with salt. Mr. 

 Winslow is confident that all the corn consumed 

 ^nrinqr the whole time of fattening does not exceed 



