690 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[November 



ments in feeding boiled corn, cooked meal, 

 and dry shelled corn to swine. 



The results of Mr. C.'s experiments, con- 

 firmed as they are by those of others, show 

 that the grinding of corn into meal, and 

 cooking the latter, will make one bushel of 

 corn produce more pork, (live weight,) than 

 two would do, and nearly as much as three 

 would if fed whole and uncooked. 



The results of Mr. Clay's experiments 

 show that the number of pounds of pork 

 for each bushel of corn was as follows: 



When fed in the form of boiled corn, 14^ lbs. 

 do. do. cooked meal, 16^ lbs. 



do. do. dry corn, 5f lbs. 



In the last vol. of Georgia Gentleman, 

 A. S. Proctor, Til., tells us u how much 

 corn will make a pound of pork." His pig 

 ate in sixty-one days, 5 5-9ths bushels of 

 corn at 35 cents per bushel — $200, and it 

 made 43 lbs. of dressed pork, worth 5 \ cts. 

 per pound, $2.36 — or 36 cents more than the 

 corn fed to him was worth, in the crib. 



If the statements of Mr. Clay are correct, 

 Mr. Proctor actuall}' lost about two-thirds of 

 the corn fed to the pig, which might have 

 been saved if the corn had been ground into 

 meal and cooked before having been fed. 

 As Mr. P. is good in figures, we hope 

 another year he will experiment on two or 

 more pigs, feeding one lot on raw corn, the 

 other on cooked meal, and cypher out the 

 results and have them published in the 

 Georgia Gentleman. 



Mr. Proctor realized 41 cents per bushel 

 for his corn — by way of set off I will show 

 how much a New Hampshire farmer ob- 

 tained per bushel for his corn, fed to a pair 

 ■of pigi. In the Georgia Gentleman of 23d 

 April, 1857, W. A. Harriman of Warner, 

 N. H., gives the result of his experience in 

 11 fattening pigs." He says: 



" Last spring I bought two pigs four 

 weeks old the 19th of May, for $6. They 

 were taken home and fed on sour milk for 

 two or three weeks, giving them no more 

 than they could eat from one feeding, to the 

 next, always sweeping out the trough at 

 every feeding. In this way they will eat a 

 little at a time, and as often as it is desired. 

 At the end of two or three weeks I com- 

 menced stirring a little meal without heat- 

 ing, increasing the quantity as long as the 

 trough was found clean at the next feeding. 

 All the sour milk they had was what re- 

 mained of the milk of two cows after a 

 family of six persons had had their supply. 



Late in the fall I used more than half cold 

 water to mix their meal in. Together with 

 the sour milk, they ate five or six bushels of 

 small potatoes, and twenty-eight bushels of 

 corn meal. They were slaughtered when 

 seven and a half months old, and weighed 

 660 pounds. Thus you see, that for every 

 bushel of corn I received twenty-three and 

 four-sevenths pounds of pork. The smaller 

 pig was sold for ten cents per pound, which 

 would make both amount to $66. Deduct 

 six dollars which was paid for the pigs, and 

 lour dollars for small potatoes and sour milk, 

 and you have $56 left, or $2 for every 

 bushel of corn, not counting my labor any- 

 thing." 



The above statements of Mr. Harriman 

 are perfectly reliable, and there are many 

 others here whose " luck" in raising pigs is 

 very similar. 



Again in the Georgia Gentleman of 19th 

 inst., you give the statement of Joseph 

 Greene of Macedon, N. Y. He was very 

 successful " in feeding pigs on undiluted 

 skim-milk — or in its most concentrated 

 state — without any water thrown in." If a 

 pig can eat three gallons of milk each day, 

 would it add anything extra to the growth 

 of the pig if the milk was diluted one-half 

 with water — in that case he would only eat 

 six quarts of milk per diem. Hogs can't be 

 fattened on water; yet some farmers act as 

 though they thought there were great fat- 

 tening virtues in water. They mash Up 

 their boiled potatoes, add a little meal, and 

 water enough to make the whole mess about 

 the consistency of egg-nogg; but this kind 

 of swill is better calculated to make pot- 

 bellied pigs, than it is fat porkers. One of 

 my neighbors, who usually keeps four old 

 hogs, says his swine are. better judges of 

 how much liquid or drink they need, than 

 he is; so he has two troughs in the pen, one 

 for milk, whey or water, and the other for 

 dry meal. Instinct, or the cravings of 

 nature, direct how much and how often to 

 eat and drink. This man raises heavy, solid 

 and well fattened ho^s. 



In turning back to the Georgia Gentle- 

 man of 10th of last November, I find an 

 amusing article, in the Sam Slick style of 

 telling a- story, about fattening hogs on 

 " parched corn and honey." This farmer 

 who fattened his hogs on parched corn and 

 honey, sometimes made them, when dressed 

 for market ; weigh over 700 pounds. He 

 says : 



