Agriculture is the most healthful , the most useful , and the most noble employment of man. —Washington. 
VOL. IV. 
A. B. Allen, Editor. 
NG SWINE. 
One of the most important duties demanding the 
farmer’s attention this month, is the fattening of his 
swine. The practice of some at the north is, to com¬ 
mence one month Jater; but this is very bad economy, 
for all animals will fat much faster in mild weather 
than in cold. Besides, there is a good deal of stuff 
about the farm which is never so valuable as in this 
month ; and if gathered up and cooked, is the best 
food which can be given for the commencement of 
the fatting process. We would name small potatoes 
and roots of all kinds, cabbage, turnips, pumpkins, 
apples, and unripened and imperfect ears of corn. 
After these have been fed a month or so, commence 
with a mixture of the different kinds of meal, or corn 
alone, and shove the animals as fast as possible, get¬ 
ting them ready for the market by the middle of No¬ 
vember to the first of January. If delayed longer 
than this last mentioned period, however cheap food 
may be, or high the pork may sell, fatting swine will 
be a losing process. 
The hogs should be allowed to exercise a little in 
the open air, and have charcoal and rottenwood to 
eat twice a week, and whatever water they may wish 
to drink. Some contend that they will not fat as 
fast for this, but that remains yet to be proved by 
careful experiment. At any rate, we know that the 
meat is much superior when fatting animals have a 
moderate degree of exercise, and plenty of fresh air 
and water. If closely confined they become feverish, 
and their meat is not only flabby and tasteless, but 
positively unhealthy. 
Another thing. Sufficient attention is not paid to 
the cleanliness of swine. Depend upon it, no animal 
pays better for keeping him clean than the hog ; and 
after all, he is not half as dirty a beast as he is usually 
set down to be. No creature enjoys clean quarters 
NO. X, 
Saxton & Miles, Publishers, 205 Broadway. 
better"than he does—tempt him with a good bed of 
fresh straw, and see. The following experiment was 
recently tried in England:—Six pigs of the Norfolk 
breed, and of nearly equal weight, were put to keep¬ 
ing at the same time, and treated the same as to food 
and litter for about seven weeks. Three of them 
were left to shift for themselves as to cleanliness; 
the other three' were kept as clean as possible by a 
man employed for the purpose, with curry-comb and 
brush. The last consumed in seven weeks fewer 
peas by five bushels than the other three, yet they 
weighed more when killed by seventy-two pounds. 
Northern farmers may talk as they please, but they 
don’t understand, or rather carry into effect anything 
like so good a system of fatting swine as those do at 
the west. There they commence feeding early in 
September, in a nice grass pasture, with plenty of 
shade trees, and a clear stream running through it. 
Here Master Porkibus daily bathes his sleek sides, 
eats luscious roasting ears to his fill, drinks and walks 
about or sleeps at his pleasure; and the way he con¬ 
trives to extract the fat from the corn to cover his 
rotund ribs, is quite charming —completely distancing 
any other chemical process that the wit of man has 
yet invented. It is worth a journey of a thousand 
miles, any time, to take a look at a small field of corns 
of jive hundred acres , crowning the rich bottoms of 
the west on one side of a fence, and a little herd of 
two or three hundred lusty grunters making away 
with it on the other. Indeed, we speak within 
bounds in saying, that we have seen thousands of 
acres of corn stretching along these valleys, seeming 
at a little distance like one continued field; and we 
once counted 537 hogs in one herd. Talk about pork 
and corn in New York ! Take a trip to the Sciota, 
the Miami, and the Wabash, and one will then get 
his eyes open and know something about them* 
NEW YORK, OCTOBER, 1845. 
