186?.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
4=4S 
tipns on the breeding of swine, in the August 
No., p. 279, of the Agriculturist. But they do 
not cover the whole ground. In the first place 
■we do not pay attention enough to the breed. 
"We should get the best breed we can find, and 
then be very particular Jiow we breed. The 
great object is to get a hog that will make the 
greatest weight on a given amount of food, in 
a given lime, with the least offal. As the hog 
is the only animal that is bred for flesh alone, it 
should be so managed that it will pay to raise 
and fatten them for breeding animals. We 
should select those approaching nearest our ideal 
of a perfect hog, and avoid in-and-in breeding. 
In crossing or lining we should be careful to 
correct defects in one, by selecting for its mate 
another good in those particular points in which 
the former fails, and always keep our breeders 
after they have been tested and found to be 
what we want as long as they will breed. And 
always keep them fleshy, as flesh will become a 
natural condition after a few generations, if 
they are not allowed to run down. I believe 
we may just as well have a breed that will 
mature in eight or ten months and dress from 300 
to 400 lbs., and this done too, on three-fourths 
the food that it would require to attain the 
same weight with our " old-fashioned hogs " in 
eighteen or twenty months, and au inferior qual- 
ity of pork at that. I am not a swine breeder, 
but I know how it is done, and how it should 
be done, for I have a neighbor who has put the 
foregoing practical rules to the test for the past 
ten years, and his pigs are easily made to dress 
350 to -100 lbs. at nine months, as hundreds of 
pork makers in this county can affirm. And I 
have no doubt that this County alone is more 
than ten thousand dollars betlcr off for his en- 
terprise in this direction. He is rewarded by 
having made a fortune in the business. Not 
only this County but this State and many others, 
as well as Canada, are yearly benefited by one 
man conducting this business in a sensible 
way, and as every other sensible farmer should." 
[We can mention other good farmers who are 
doing much in the same way, and are making 
hog-raising forpork, profitable even at the East. 
For ourselves we very well know that there is no 
profit in raising hogs for pork alone, unless 
prices of corn rule low, and those for pork, high. 
It is not for their flesh alone that we raise hogs, 
but for their service as manure makers, and this 
should be borne in mind b} r the farmer. — Ed.] 
Killing Time for Hogs and Beef. 
The subject of killing domestic animals for 
food comes directly home to every farmer and 
farmer's wife in the country. Slaughtering is not 
so pleasant to ihe farmer as the preliminary 
labors of breeding, raising, and fattening, neither 
are the labors it imposes upon the good-wife 
so agreeable as preparing the fat spare-ribs and 
sirloin roasting pieces for the table, yet both 
are equally necessary. 
It is very desirable to have cold weather for 
the operation, and as our cold days are very 
likely to come in threes or fours, there seldom 
being more than four consecutive very cold days, 
and usually but three, it is best to be ready, and 
take the first clear cold day for the work, and 
trust to the two following to freeze what meat 
is to be kept fresh. In regard to pork, that is 
almost all to be salted or smoked, this is not 
very important, yet it is much more convenient 
and pleasant to handle meat that is firm and 
cold than that which is flabby. 
The most convenient way for a farmer to handle 
heavy hogs in slaughtering is to have a block 
and tackle to swing the hog by while bleeding, 
the rope being made fast to one hind leg below 
the hock. By the same tackle he is lifted and 
lowered into the tub of hot water in scalding for 
the removal of the bristles. The dressing table 
should be level with the tub, and as soon as one 
hog is scalded and lifted out upon the table, the 
rope may be attached to another. It will not be 
necessary to use the tackle to lift the hogs out of 
the tub, for this miy be done easily if two ropes, 
held apart by three or four rungs, like a piece of 
rope-ladder, are fastened to the table, and lie in 
and across the tub, so that the hog will lie upon 
them ; taking hold of the ends of the ropes two 
men can lift and roll out a heavy hog easil}-. 
In cutting up beef, it is important to remem- 
ber that the object is not simply to get it all into 
small pieces, but to have the pieces of such shape, 
and so cut with relation to the bones, that the 
meat will cook to the best advantage, cut up 
well, appear well ou the table, and more than 
all, be most palatable and nutritious. All this de- 
pends much upon the cutting up of the carcass. 
There are many approved ways of doing this, 
and we cannot now discuss them, but may give 
two general hints, which, if followed, will be 
satisfactory to everybody. First, cut so that the 
pieces, when brought to the table, may be cut 
across the fibre, as squarely as possible. Second, 
so divide the carcass that each part shall have 
its due proportion of bone. This is difficult in- 
deed, for the shins and knuckles will have much 
bone and little meat, the end of the ribs too, aud 
the piece including the great bones of the hip 
and pelvis will be disproportionately bony, aud 
pieces cut from the leg for smoked beef and 
salting may properly be quite free from bone; 
nevertheless, retail butchers know they must 
ever try to make a fair division of the bone 
among their customers, aud the result is much 
more satisfactorily shaped pieces than if this 
principle were not heeded. 
•_ — ■ »■ i ■ 
Indian Corn— Fertilization— How to Gain 
Two Ears to a Stalk. 
A few weeks since a gentleman handed us 
two neatly made sections of ears of Western 
com, from the farm of Wm. F. Thompson, Lo- 
gan County, 111. In themselves they were not 
very extraordinary, but the sections were care- 
full}' cut, and the corn being of a bright yellow 
edged with white, in one, and clear yellow in the 
other, contrasted beautifully with the red scales 
on the outside of the cob, and with the clear 
white within. "We have not a doubt that many 
of the readers of the Agricultitristv;\\\ be struck 
with the beauty of these rosette-like figures, and 
be surprised to find out what they are, for there 
are many among them familiar with the Dent 
or Horsetoolh corn only a? it comes to market, 
and with whom a 10-rowed or 12-rowcd variety 
of corn is a rarity. The corn of the North- east- 
ern States is the 8-rowed white or yellow flint, 
the season generally being too short for the 
Dent varieties. In the smaller figure, (0,) 
at several points, the filament connecting 
the kernel with the pith in the center of the 
cob may be distinctly traced. In all, it might 
have been dissected out, with a little care. At 
the opposite end cf the kernel there is a little 
elevated point at which another filament, the 
silk, was attached. Through the silk, as is 
well known, the fertilizing influence of the pol- 
len, coming Irona me "spindles" or "tassels," 
at the tops of the corn stalks in the field, de- 
scends to the kernels. Now, inasmuch as a 
kernel is seldom fertilized by the pollen of the 
stalk on which it grows, and, as the kernel is 
thus the joint offspring of different corn plants, 
variations of coior in the kernels of the same 
ear often occur. There are, besides, other in- 
fluences communicated which do not show 
themselves in the color or shape of the grain. 
A remarkable fact has lately been brought to 
our attention by Mr. H. S. Bid well, (Bidwell 
Bro's.,) of St. Paul, who was recently traveling 
in Tennessee, where he saw a field of common 
corn, which usually yields an average of not 
more than one good ear to the stalk, bearing 
almost uniformly two, and often three ears. 
The result, he informs us, had been brought 
about in this way. It occurred to the farmer 
that, as the kernel usualh- derived its origin, as 
we have described, from two different plants, 1 
5SPfev.- ~"' 
Fig. 1. — SECTION OP 24-ROWED COEN. 
saving the seed corn from stalks bearing two 
ears was not enough ; he must see to it that the 
kernel germs were fertilized by similar stalks. 
So he planted every year a special patch for 
seed, and carefully cut off all the spindles on 
stalks where two or more ears were not set. 
The result was an improvement year by year in 
the quantity of corn, as well as in the manner in 
which it grew. The principle has a wide appli- 
cation in the improvement of the different kinds 
of farm and garden produce. In the breeding 
of animals, the qualities expected from the 
male, and those which usually are inherited from 
the dam, are to a degree understood, and the 
application of similar principles in breeding 
Fiu 
-SECTION OF 23-ROWBD COItN. 
vegetables is certainly legitimate. The 
above staled has so good .•\ foundation in s 
reasoning, that we give it to our readers, an- 
ticipating its publication in the "American 
Agricultural Annual," which is now in press. 
