90 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
ANALYSIS OF WATER, &C, 
Messrs. Editors — I have, until now, neglected to send 
on my dollar, but, I suppose, “better late than never,” and, 
in the language of one of your contributors, I am glad you 
have adopted the rule of “no dollar no Cultivator-,'^ so en- 
closed please find one dollar for the Cultivator. 
Enclosed I send to Dr. Lee (knowing him to be a good 
chemist) the analysis of a well of water on my place, form- 
ing a fine bold stream. I respectfully ask your opinion of 
it, and for what diseases you think it would be good. 
ANALYSIS. 
Temperature, 60 4-5 degrees — specific gravity, 138^^^! — 
reaction decidedly acid. 
1. Carbonic Acid. 
2. Free Sulphuric Acid. 
3. Proto. Sulphate Ii’on. 
4. Sulphate Lime. 
5. Chloride Magnesium. 
6. Sulphate Alumina. 
7. Iodide Potassium. 
By complying with the above you will greatly oblige a 
friend and subscriber. W. L. R. 
Remarks. — Were the quantity of carbonic and free sul- 
phuric acids given, and that of the Iodide ofPotassium. in 
a pint or quart of water, we could judge better of its 
medicinal virtues. Iodine is a powerful medicine, and is 
used to remove obstructions in glands, and cure other 
chronic affections. Regarded as a whole, the water is a 
to'uic — its free acids will tend to prevent all biliary concre- 
tions, and its iron be, perhaps, of some service. Sulphate 
of lime or gypsum, we regard as unwholesome, if taken 
in quantities into the stomach. It prevails to an injurious 
extent in many limestone regions ; and to avoid it, we 
have long used filtered rain-water for making tea and cof- 
fee. L. 
SHALL HOGS FOR THE SOUTH. 
The attentive readers of this journal must have noticed 
a very sensible article under the above heading on page 
19 of the January (1855) number, from the pen of “C.L.,” 
Minden, La., which concludes by desiring the opinion of 
the conductors of the Cultivator on the subject. It is one 
deserving of consideration; and as the writer has recently 
purchased some six hundred acres of land near Athens, 
partly for experiments in stock-growing, sheep and dairy 
husbandry, he is anxious to collect the best judgment and 
opinions of Southern men in reference to size, kinds and 
varieties of different races of Live Stock. Free and friend- 
ly discussion will doubtless bring out the results of years 
of valuable experiencein this department of rural industry ; 
and from this record of actual practice with the peculiar 
soils, plants, climates and domesticated animals of the 
Southern States, much useful instruction may be derived 
for the benefit of ail reading farmers. 
In regard to a small breed of hogs in preference to a 
large one, our views coincide with those of “C. L.,” and 
mainly for similar reasons. We have had but little ex- 
perience in curing meat at the South, but that little has 
served to convince us that it is a more difficult operation 
than at the North. In cutting up a small hog that weighed 
a little over 200 pounds in January, when it was warm 
enough for the large blowing flies to be on the wing buz- 
zing about, anxious to lay their eggs, we were thankful 
that the hams and shoulder pieces were no thicker, for 
when very thick, as they are in large, well fattened ani- 
mals, they are extremely liable to taint near the central 
bones. As we pickle all the flesh of hogs, neat cattle and 
sheep, not eaten fresh, our practice is not to cut in over- 
large pieces, but to give the dry salt first, and the brine 
that soon follows a fair opportunity to penetrate to the 
centre of every piece. We never saw finer pickled pork 
at the North than we now have at our first trial in Georgia. 
While smoke, or pyroligneous acid, is a powerful antisep*- 
tic, and preservative of meat, it is also nearly equally re- 
sistive of those changes in the stomach which constitute 
digestion ; and on that account smoked hams, shoulders 
and sides of hogs are less digestible than they would be if 
not smoked. Excessive smoking should be avoided; a 
little is nearly or quite harmless to most stomachs. 
On all thin lands where food for swine is scarce, a 
small breed of hogs should be preferred, .because two small 
hogs will pick up a comfortable subsistence where one 
large one would nearly starve. The two small animals 
having eight legs to carry them over nearly barren old 
fields and forests to hunt their living, while the one large 
animal has but four, it is obvious that the former can gath- 
er twice as much food in a day as the latter, and at the 
same time each small animal needs only about half the 
quantity to serve the natural wants of his little body. Do- 
mestic animals require daily nutriment in proportion to 
their weight; and it is on this principle that nature kindly 
diminishes the size by stunting them, of all young animals 
where their proper aliment is scarce. She wisely attempts 
to accommodate the volume and wants of their bodies to 
the circumstances which surround them. 
On our very poor land, we had rather keep two small 
horses than one large one ; and we shall act on the same 
rule in the purchase of working steers, milk-cows, and 
sheep for producing wool and mutton. Had we 600 acres 
of rich land, our practice would be different; for large 
animals have their advantages as well as small ones. 
These advantages, however, are a little over-estimated by 
Boussingault, and some English breeders, although 
fashion in France and England favors mammoth horses, 
cattle, sheep and swine. Small animals are said to waste 
a little more food in respiration according to their weight, 
than large ones, on the principle that a pound of lead run 
into 16 ounce balls would cool sooner than if run into one 
large ball. In the former case, the surface for the radiation 
of heat is many times larger than in the latter ; so the 
skins of three cows that will weigh 2,000 pounds have a 
larger surface than that of an ox that weighs as much as 
the three cows. Boussingault asserts, and doubtless 
truly, that large animals are cheapest kept when soiled or 
stall-fed, according to weight. In a warm, quiet pen, or 
stable, the loss of food from action, or walking (which 
quickens respiration, and consumes both fat and muscles) 
is reduced to its minimum. In the Southern States soiling 
and stabling common stock are little practiced ; and most 
animals are left to seek their means of subsistence where 
little is to be found. 
Having decided in favor of small races, our next care 
should be to keep no larger number of hogs, cattle, mules, 
sheep or poultry than we can maintain in a growing, or 
in a fattening condition. This is a point in animal phy- 
siology and farm economy of great importance. We do 
not say that the rule never has an exception ; for such 
rules are scarce. But the miserable economy of having 
vastly more mouths to feed than food to supply them, meets 
us in our every-day walks and rides. It were better 
economy to kill half the live stock m the State at once ; 
make their carcasses into rich manure, and with this raise 
plants to feed and fatten the moiety that was kept for fu- 
ture service. Dead animals make excellent manure; and 
in the interior where Peruvian guano is worth from sixty 
to seventy dollars a ton, mean cattle might be put to a 
worse use than to be fed to hungry agricnltural plants. 
The feeding of the latter on poor land, at a profitable rate, 
is a hard problem to solve; and where one has no corn 
for his hogs, and they are too poor for meat, why may he 
not reduce their number by feeding a part to young and 
needy corn plants 'I They have as good a right to eat 
hogs, as hogs have to eat corn. 
