292 
S 0 U T H E 11 N C U L T I V A T 0 T . 
iliosc h« hits selected as breeders. My lot is a quarter of 
a mile from the rcfjular feedinj^ plitcc. After the pigs arc 
omrlced arid spayed, or large eoough to shift in a crowd, i 
turn them and my sows with the stock hogs and have a 
pen at the regular feeding place to which the pigs have ac- 
cess and where they are sepjirately fed. 1 exfteetto use a 
large kettle for boiling for the use of my sows and pigs, 
iind to locate it at my woods pasture lot. They will thrive 
much more on slops than on unground corn, and the same 
kettle can be used for boiling for my hogs intended lor 
killing. 
I invariably sow a field of rye for my hogs. I prefer rye 
for this pur()Ose to any other grain, because it can lie sown 
in December and as late as the first of January, when tlie 
cotton crop has been gathered and when the planter has 
leisure to plow it in. After it is matured it will remain in 
the field e.xposed to all the vicisitudes of weather without 
in jury and my hogs have ample tinu; to glean the wheal 
and oat fields liefore they are turned in upon the rye. It 
is a more hardy grain and a less precarious crop than 
either wheat or oafs, and the stubble is understood to con- 
tain more fertilizing properties than any other. 
'I'he gleanings of my wlieat, out, rye fields and orchards, 
with crab grass and the aid of a very little corn, keep the 
stock in a growing condition until the first of September, 
when I separate my hogs intended for slaughter and com- 
mence feeding them with an increased quantity of corn. 
.\s soon as my growing corn will admit it, a pea field 
is o|)ened tor them where they remain until the last of 
October, when they arcM'onfined too close pen, and furnish- 
ed with an unstinted allowance of corn. 
liustyear I hauhsl from my swamp fields several loads 
of jiumpkins and had some of them cut up every day with 
a spade ami fed to them. 'I'licy eat them with a most 
voraeious appetite even when they were surfeited witli 
corn. While the pumpkins afforded a wliolesonic change 
of diet, they acted as a eorriictive for overfeeding, and their 
elleet in (he inijiroved condition of (he hogs was olivious. 
'I’lu'-y w('re not intemh'd as a sulistitnte for corn, and con- 
se(]nently I did not diminish their usual su[)|ily, I am 
giviugmy plan of liittening hogs as it is, witli all its imper- 
fi'.etions. I know that it admits of improvement. It is 
my purpose to feed my fattening hogs next fall orrasional,- 
/// on ground or unground corn, boiled thorongbly and 
distrilnited in troughs in the shape of slops. One of the 
most snceessful pork raisers I (‘ver knew (ed his fattening 
hogs with corn soaked in cold water, and I can testify to 
the great advantage derived from leeding pigs on corn 
made soft by soaking in common water. 
•From tixperiments made by IIicnry Coi.man, Agricul- 
tural C'ommissiouer of the State of Massachusetts, and 
Hknky L. Fr.KNVouTii, former Commissioner of Patents, 
it tipjrears that one bushel of corn well ground and boiled 
will make as much pork as two bushels unground and 
not boiled. I believe that this is an exaggerated estimate, 
although it comes to us in the. imposing shape of oiliciul 
experiment. 
If the planter can save one-half the corn consumed in 
fattening his hogs it would, in my opinion, be equivalent 
to the labor of at least one hand on a phmtation which 
requires the labor of 15 or 20 to cultivate it, and would 
enable every planter in Georgia who makes full crops of 
cotton, by judiciously directed eflbrt to make his own 
pork in ordinary seasons and on ordinary land well culti 
ratod. 
I have but little confidence in potatoes, ground peas, 
and turnips as substitutes for corn. The same labor em- 
ployed in making them will, in my opinion, yield a more 
valuable product in corn. In raising pork, I think there 
cun be no substitute for the corn crib. Pumpkins and the 
cornfield pea are valuable auxilaries, and the very little 
additional labor it requires to cultivate them should recom- 
mend them to every planter; but they are not substitutes 
for corn, and there is nothing that we can raise with the 
sujiic labor which can be so readily converted into good 
firm pork as corn. 1 attach, however, great importance to 
ihe[)Cuerop and consider it almost indispensable to my 
succci.ss in raising bogs. To raise them cost.smebnt little 
more than the labor of dropping them. I deposit them in 
the first furrow made by the plow when my corn is 
[)lowcd the second time, and cover them with the second 
iuriow. 
1 have made many experiments in the culture of the 
pea and find this to be the cheapest and mo.st economical 
mode of making them without interfering with the proper 
culture of the corn croj>. f have never hesitated to turn 
my stock hogs on peas of any variety before the 1st of 
December, and after that time on the Red or Tory pea, 
which is not liable to rot and will remain sound on the 
ground during the winter 1 endeavor to have a fresh un- 
gleaned j)ea field to turn in after Christmas and supply 
them boutitifully with salt and ashes. If I have ever suf- ! 
fered any lo.ss from permitting my hogs to run on peas I 
am not aware of it; on the contrary, at no period of the 
year arc they in a more thriving condition than the 1st of 
February when they have had the benefit of a pea field 
during the preceding month. 
1 do not rely on pork as a source of income, although I 
usuitlly have some to spare. I look to cotton for my in- 
come, and endeavor to make full crops, and in proof of my 
success I will mention that generally J congratulate myself \ 
wlicn 1 liuve gathered the last pound, that 1 have no more 
to j)i(^k. 1 am not one ol the “ten bales to the hand plant- 
ers,” and my negroes do not work all the time as ifthey 
were fighting fire, but on pressing occasions they are requir- | 
ed to work with art accelerated pace. 1 mean by a full crop, i 
wliat my liands cun cultivate well without disregarding 
the preservation and improvetnent of the soil cultivated. 
If I leave no monument of my enterprise when I become ; 
forever separated from my plantation, my desire is to have 
no scarred and gullied fields as inglorious memoriaivS of my ' 
injudicious system of culture. The aim is a noble one, 
whether it is reached or not. 
Permit me to refer to some of my plantation .itatistic^ ; | 
In doing so 1 am not so much jiromptcd Iry a sense of 
Lingratified vanity as a desire to illustrate the scale on ! 
which my cxjieriments have been made. In 1851 1 killed ■ 
eiglity bogs averaging 171 lbs. to tire hog and yielding 
13,‘).‘U) lbs. in [)ork. I^ast year I killed seventy-five hogs j 
are averaging 204 lbs. ar)d giving me an aggregate of 
1 5, IKK) lbs. of pork and al)Out 3000 lbs. more than I re- 
quire for my own consumption. The average of the for- 
mer year fell short of the last as you discover very con- | 
siderubly. There were several reasons for this disparity. ' 
First, the hogs of the former year were younger by seve- 
ral months than those last killed. I prefer when nriy 
hogs are confined to a close pen for fattening, that they* 
should not be less than two years old and ranging from ' 
that to three years of age, and in this my experience is in 
conflict with the opinion of very many better planters 
than I am. Secondly, although the first lot of hogs were 
well fed on corn, they were fed on nothing else, while the 
pen of last year was occasionally supplied with pump- 
kins. The stomach of every animal becomes clogged when 
fed with unvarying constancy on the same aliment and 
refuses to perform its proper functions. To avoid this i 
evil, I will hereafier in addition to this hard corn with 
which my fattening hogs are supplied, give them occasion- 
ally boiled corn, boiled peas and pumpkins, and shall be 
disappointed if I am not rewarded by an increased quan- 
tity of pork. 
It is scarcely necessary to advert to tlie fact which every 
planter knows, that hogs consume less and fatten sooner 
in warm than in cold weather. Unfortunately every 
