±56 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Decembek, 
"He is as mean as dirt to destroy property in 
that way," said Tucker. 
"I should n't a' thought so much of it," said 
Seth, puffing away at his pipe, " ef they had 
heen in the habit of gettin into his corn. But I 
don't 'spose they'd been there more than once 
afore this whole summer. I had allers started 
'em off into the big field in the morning, so as 
tu keen 'em on my own land." 
"Better shoot some of his," said Tucker, "the 
next time they come up this way." 
"No, I shan't," said Seth, "that -would make 
tu fools instead of one, and one is plenty enough 
in this neighborhood." 
"Sue him then, I guess?" inquired Tucker. 
" No, I shan't, while my pipe and tobacco 
lasts," said Seth. "The last cure fer any evil is 
a law-suit. It don't help good neighborhood." 
"Well, what does?" asked Tucker. 
"Doing about as you'd be done by," said 
Seth. " You see, Jake Prink and I have been 
neighbors ever sense we were boys, and are like 
to be till we go intu the grave. I paid his bill 
for corn damaged by turkeys last year, and it's 
fair that he should pay my bill for turkeys kill- 
ed this year." 
" And 'spose he don't do it?" inquired Uncle 
Jotham Sparrowgrass, who came up hobbling 
with his cane as we were talking. 
"Don't do it!" exclaimed Seth, with a big 
puff of smoke. "I should like to know how 
he is gwine to git rid on't. It's plainer than a 
pike staff. If I pay him for damaged property, 
he ought to pay me, and he must see it. If he 
don't pay for them turkeys, why I've got Jake's 
conscience on my side, and he'll be hearing 
them turkeys gobble in his dreams, till he does 
the right thing." 
"You'll cut his acquaintance, then, I guess?" 
said Uncle Jotham. 
"No, I shan't," said Seth, "I shall be a little 
more attentive to Jake than ever, allers inquire 
after his health, and watch for opportunities to 
do him a kindness. I shall pile the coals of fire 
right on tu his head, and make him sweat. If 
his cattle git intu the mire I shall help 'em out. 
If his turkeys come over to my place, I shall 
drive 'em home carefully. If he wants my 
team in logging time, he can have it. If he's 
sick, I'll visit him and watch with him. I'll 
make him ashamed of his unneighborly conduct, 
and wish that every shot he put intu my tur- 
keys was in his own skin. Ye see, if I get 
cross, and quarrelsome, I'll lose my hold on 
Jake's conscience, and make him think that I 
deserved to have my birds killed. If I am 
neighborly, I make him ashamed of his con- 
duct, and every one of them turkeys haunt him 
till he does right." 
" And 'spose he ha'n't got any conscience ?" 
inquired Tucker doubtingly. 
" All I have to say on that point is, that God 
don't make folks in that way." 
So Seth Twiggs marched off in his cloud of 
smoke, just as confident that he could get the 
start of Jake Prink, as Jake was that he had 
the best of the bargain when he killed his neigh- 
bor's turkeys. Poultry makes a good deal of 
bother among near neighbors, and it is only up- 
on large farms with a wide range, that turkeys 
over ought to be kept. The}' wont do well in 
confinement, unless you have a twentj'-acre lot, 
with trees and brush for them to run in. Nearly 
all the turkeys that are raised in Hookertown 
are raised upon farms, and the birds go where 
they like. They do some damage on the farms 
of their owners — trample the grass and oats a 
little, pick up some corn in the fall, and strip 
the turnip leaves. But on the whole they are 
so profitable and make so large an item in the 
income of the year, that few farmers like to do 
without them. They live very largely all 
through the summer on grasshoppers and other 
insects, reducing their numbers and helping the 
grass and grain crops in this way much more 
than they damage them. It is not an uncom- 
mon thing for a smart poultry woman to raise 
a hundred turkeys, worth at Thanksgiving three 
hundred dollars in clean cash. The} r are sold 
in a lump, and the money comes in a lump, 
with very little trouble. The best managed 
flocks come home every night, and always roost 
in one place on a scaffold, secure from foxes and 
other night marauders. But they will sometimes 
stray into a neighbor's fields, and eat some 
grain. This is provoking, but if a' farmer knows 
that his turkeys wander in the same way and 
commit the same kind of depredations, it ought 
to make him careful of his neighbor's property. 
Where neighbors all keep these birds, the ac- 
count is probably pretty equally balanced at the 
close of each year. Their wanderings will be 
very much restrained by liberal feeding at home. 
They travel for food mainly, and if it is found 
that they trespass, it is much more economical 
to draw upon your corn-bin to restrain them, 
than to draw upon your neighbor's cornfield 
and exhaust his patience. Seth Twiggs is as 
sound as a nut on good neighborhood ; and as 
it is a credit to Hookertown, I am glad to say 
that he found that Jake Prink had a conscience 
and paid the bill. Moral — Don't presume upon 
your neighbor's rascality. 
Hookertown, Conn., 
Oct. 15, 1S70 
Yours to command, 
Timothy Bunker, Esq. 
Management of Hogs in Illinois, 
a 
Mr. James Rice,of Peoria Co., 111., favors us with 
the following account of the management of 
swine in that section : "The custom," he sa}^, "is 
to have the pigs come about the first of May ; turn 
the sows and pig3 on good pasture and give the 
sows, beside the pasture, all the corn they will 
eat. There is then no trouble about the pigs 
growing. When weaning time comes, place the 
old sows in a separate pasture and feed them 
grain, if necessary. Take two barrels and fill 
them with shelled corn and turn the slop from 
the kitchen, and what sour milk you have, in 
one of the barrels, and it will soak the corn soft 
in a couple of days. Then soak the other bar- 
rel, and in this way the pigs will have just the 
right kind of food all the time. Cooking might 
be better, but it is expensive, and soaking an- 
swers the purpose very well. Peed the pigs 
enough of this to keep them in good thriving con- 
dition. In the fall, feed new corn as soon as it is 
hard enough, Peed them well through the first 
winter, and at ten months old they can be fatten- 
ed so as easily to dress 300 lbs. But if prefer- 
red, place them in good pasture the second spring 
and summer, and then fatten the next winter, 
when, if of a good breed, there will be no 
trouble in making them weigh 500 lbs. Old 
sows make very good scavengers, but if you 
make scavengers of young pigs, the probability 
is that they will never make any thing else. 
Pigs can be bred in the fall, if desirable; but 
here, where the winters are severe, it is best to 
breed them in the spring. If there is one thing 
more important than another in raising hogs, 
it is first to secure a good breed and then take 
good care of them." 
Remarks. — Some of the Western agricultural 
editors seem to think that an Eastern farmer 
can know nothing about raising or fattening 
hogs ; but the above described system of man- 
agement differs very little from that practised 
on many farms at the East. The last sentiment 
is certainly good doctrine everywhere. We have 
farmers here that half starve their pigs, and we 
imagine that there are a few who do the same 
thing even in the fertile cheap com districts of the 
West ; we have some farmers here who " secure 
a good breed and then take good care of them," 
and we know that such is also the case at the 
West. It is our object, in all that we have 
written on this subject, to increase the number 
of such, whether living East, West, North, or 
South, and we can but think that we keep as 
many pigs and have as good opportunities of 
studying the best system of managing and fat- 
tening them as some of the editors of Western 
agricultural papers. And we may say that not 
a single Western farmer has found fault, to our 
knowledge, with our views on the rearing and 
management of swine. 
Our correspondent advocates having only one 
litter a year. With the small breeds, which 
breed faster than the large breeds, we like to 
have two litters a year ; one in March, and the 
other in September. Our spring pigs we treat as 
he does his, — give them all the soaked corn and 
cooked meal that they will eat with access to a 
good clover pasture ; and sell them either for 
fresh pork, or keep them until December. We 
have some spring pigs now of a small breed 
that will dress over 300 lbs. each. The most 
essential point we find is to commence feeding 
the little pigs while suckling the sow, sny at 
two weeks old. This helps the little ones and 
saves the strength of the mother, and in this 
way she is better able to stand two litters a year 
than one, when so kept that at weaning time 
she is reduced to a skeleton. The fall pigs it is 
particularly desirable to have come early, and 
they must have comfortable quarters and be 
well fed during the winter. The next spring 
and summer they have the run of a good clover 
pasture, and they ought to have (but do not al- 
ways get it) corn enough to keep them growing 
as rapidly as possible — to keep them in fact fat 
all the time. By the first of November such 
pigs should dress 400 lbs.; and this is the cheap- 
est and best pork we make. Eds. 
"Speed the Plow." 
On page 369 of the October Agriculturist I 
find the following: "Nothing should give a 
greater impetus to the plow than the fact an- 
nounced and demonstrated, as we believe, by 
the Committee of the N. Y. State Ag'l Society, 
who made the awards upon plows at the great 
Auburn [should beUtica] and subsequent trials. 
This fact alluded to, is that a great increase of 
speed in the motion of a plow but slightly in- 
creases the power required to pull it. Hence, 
powerful, quick-moving teams are a vast economy 
of fores" —I italicize the conclusion drawn by 
the writer from the statements of the committee, 
as it is to the doctrine therein taught, that I 
propose to give a little consideration. 
The Committee of the State Ag'l Society did 
in their report say that friction was " entirely 
independent of velocity," (Transactions for 1867, 
page 543,) and they did, on the same page, quote 
from Mr. Morton, with a strong show of ap- 
proval, the remark that draught animals that 
naturally walk with a rapid pace " with the 
same effort, get through double the work of 
those of a more sluggish movement. With Hit 
sams effort, and therefore at no greater expense 
