276 
FATTENING HOGS. 
FATTENING- HOGS. 
For several years, I have paid some attention 
to fattening hogs, and find that they will thrive 
much faster on corn and sweet potatoes, or on 
peas and sweet potatoes, than they will on any 
one of these alone. I am well satisfied, also, 
that they will fatten much faster on boiled and 
raw food mixed, than they will on either, separate. 
The year before last, I turned my hogs into a 
potato patch, and every evening fed them With 
corn. Under this treatment, the old hogs soon 
got very fat; but in the lot there were ten long- 
legged pigs not a year old, which, at the time I 
killed the old ones, were in as good order for 
running races, perhaps, as hogs could be put in 
for that purpose. I despaired of making them 
fat enough for bacon ; but as I did not wish to 
keep them another year, I determined to try 
what effect cooked food would have on them, as 
I was well convinced that they could not be 
made fat on raw corn and potatoes ; and with 
this view, I put them into a close pen, with suffi- 
cient pine straw in it to keep the hogs from the 
dirt. I then boiled sweet potatoes until they 
would mash up freely, into which I stirred corn 
meal until the whole became mush ; and after 
feeding them on this, until they appeared satis- 
fied, I gave them corn, then raw potatoes, and 
sometimes turnips, with the tops on. Under this 
treatment, they fattened faster than I had ever 
seen hogs before. In two weeks after I put them 
into the close pen, they were fat enough for any 
use, fatter than they ever could have been made 
on corn at that age, or on any one kind of food. 
Hogs ought never to be put on a floor of plank, 
nor rails, if pine straw can be had ; because 
they cannot be made comfortable on a floor of 
wood. Fill the pen two feet deep with pine 
straw, and when it becomes foul, put in more 
straw. In this way, the hogs can be made com- 
fortable, and no part of the manure lost. 
A. E. Ernest. 
Macon, Ga., July, 1850. 
•-•-• 
THE SHEEP BOT. 
As this is the season when sheep are worried 
by the hot fly, farmers should be reminded 
that now is the time, therefore, to see that they 
are kept from the sheep, or that "an ounce of 
prevention is better than a pound of cure." 
This bot, (Cephaleviyia ovis, of Harris,) is a fly 
very much the color of the one which deposits 
its eggs on the legs of horses, to which it ap- 
pears to be somewhat allied, but smaller, and of 
a different shape. I have always seen it stated, 
when mention is made of this fly, that it depos- 
its eggs in the nose of the sheep, and under the 
article " bot," in Ree's Cyclopaedia, we read that 
the eggs are doubtless deposited within the 
inner margin of the nostrils. But as far as I 
have examined, and I have caught and exam- 
ined the bots themselves, I am convinced that 
not the eggs, but the very live maggots are de- 
posited in, or on the nose of the sheep. I have 
caught the fly and instantly forced from it 
scores of live maggots, about one sixteenth of 
an inch in length. Under the microscope, they 
are seen to be a white grub, or maggot, with 
more or less black on the head, which extends 
in two black lines, for about one third its length, 
along its belly. They are very active when 
first forced from the fly, and crawl or jump an 
inch or more in a few seconds of time. 
I could wish that some one would institute re- 
searches in the matter, and see if they meet with 
the same results; for if this fly really deposits 
maggots instead of eggs, it may prove to be 
something new to science, though it will effect 
not a whit, their victims, the sheep. 
Remedies. — As a preventive, local application of 
tar to the noses of sheep has been highly recom- 
mended. This is undoubtedly good ; but I think 
a better one is, to mix sulphur in small propor- 
tion with their salt, which, if given them daily, 
as it should be, will keep their noses constantly 
covered with more or less sulphur; whereas, tar 
soon dries and loses its repulsive odor, which is 
not the case with sulphur. 
In wet climates, shepherds are much troubled 
with the maggot of the common green-blowing 
fly. They must look over their sheep every 
day; for wherever the fly finds a wet place in 
the wool, it deposits its eggs, which soon be- 
come maggots. If left alone a few days, they 
kill the sheep. In some parts of England, shep- 
herds simply shear the wool where the maggots 
are, and then pour on them a gallon or two of 
clean, warm water. This done, they do not. hes- 
itate a moment to turn the sheep to pasture, so 
great is their confidence in their remedy. I 
have seen it tried repeatedly, and never knew it 
to fail. Egrec. 
Otsego Co., N. Y., July, 1850. 
MULCHING-, OR GURNE YISM, AS APPLIED TO FRUIT 
TREES. 
We have lately seen several instances of this 
system, which should commend it to general 
adoption in all cases where there can be any 
hope of benefit from its use. The first was in 
an orchard consisting of nearly a thousand 
apple trees, belonging to Mr. L. F. Allen, on 
Grand Island. This orchard had been planted 
four or five years, on a hard clay soil, and dur- 
ing all the previous seasons, had made little 
growth nor scarcely borne an apple. Last 
spring, a large forkful of swamp grass was 
spread around the trunk of each tree, and the 
consequence has been, constant dampness on 
the surface of the ground beneath the hay, and 
a more vigorous growth than has ever before 
taken place, while almost every tree is covered 
with fruit. As the owner proposes giving us a 
full description of his orchards, and their treat- 
ment for this paper, we omit further notice of 
them for the present. 
Another friend practises mulching with salt 
hay, which is much better for this purpose than 
the preceding. This contains an additional in- 
gredient for attracting moisture in the salt com- 
bined with-it. Many plants require shade and 
moisture, and when protected by this, will thrive 
and yield abundantly, which, if not thus pro- 
tected would be entirely unproductive. 
Another friend uses the shives, (the fine 
