3© 
The Improvement of Home-bred Stock. 
Need we describe the pig? The character¬ 
istics of what every body keeps should be uni¬ 
versally known: and there are few who have 
not well noted the difference between the easy, 
gentle, quiet feeder, and the roaming, restless, 
thriftless gormandizer. The first is a pleasant 
appendage to every gentleman’s or poor man’s 
stock; the last ought to be driven beyond the 
Mississippi with the wolf and catamount tribe, 
as their worthy co-plunderers of the products 
of civilized life. The pig, then, should have a 
short, fine snout; an eye that will not look yon 
out of countenance—nothing of the vermillion 
hue; a mouse ear we prefer; (though others 
that prefer large size may be compelled to take 
a flop ear with it;) a light jowl; a short neck: 
capacious chest: broad back, a little crowning 
if very long, or perfectly level if very short; 
belly well let down ; legs short and standing on 
the toes; broad and deep hams: tail small and 
well set up, with a kink or two in it; little hair 
and no bristles ; a soft handler; quiet habits; 
and any color you please. He should mature 
early, and fatten at any age between nine and 
eighteen months; eat moderately, and convert 
into pork on equitable shares whatever food he 
lakes; returning as near one-fourth in weight 
as possible when nutritious, or if coarser and 
lighter, as much as he can afford. 
To all this, the farmer may say, this is a very 
plausible theory, and we are willing to concede 
it may be true enough, but unfortunately we are 
oeyond the reach of such improvement; our 
neighbors have not this fine stock, nor have we 
the means to go abroad and procure it. Well, 
then, gentlemen, we will advise you what to do. 
For your breeders use the very best animals 
you have or can procure, and if access to a 
male stock animal of the right kind can be had, 
don’t button up your pockets when the price is 
stated, but pay liberally. Every penny thus 
expended, is seed wheat scattered on a fertile 
soil that in a few months will return you ten or 
twenty fold. And when your young stock is 
produced, don’t sell your best Alley because she 
will bring a few dollars more than an indiffer¬ 
ent one; or work her till superannuated, and 
breed from some crazy jade, because she is At 
for nothing else. Don’t take your best calf to 
the butcher and raise the others because they 
are worthless to him; but save your best, your 
very best heifer, and if your neighbors have not 
a better bull than your best cow affords, save 
that for use, though his carcass should be worth¬ 
less when you have done with him, which it is 
not. 
If your sheep are of the common kinds, any 
of the improved rams will benefit them, but do 
not attempt mixing the improved breeds, unless 
you are a skilful and experienced breeder. 
They have been brought to their present perfec¬ 
tion only by careful and judicious crossing. An 
unlucky cross may unsettle this nice adjustment, 
and from two races eminent in their own pecu¬ 
liar excellence, you may get a third with most 
of the faults and scarcely any of the merits of 
either. The points of a highly improved breed 
are like the well balanced elements in a chemi¬ 
cal compound, that are brought together and 
sustained by their just proportions, scientifically 
arranged; if another element he presented cr 
an excess of what is already held in combina¬ 
tion, a disturbing principle is afforded, that by 
its attraction, resolves the elements into new and 
mischievous combinations, that successive gene¬ 
rations may he required to re-establish. But no 
danger need he apprehended by crossing on to 
an indifferent stock—it might be difficult to 
make it worse, and there are ninety-nine chances 
in a hundred that it will be made better. 
It is no reasonable objection to the ambitions 
though circumscribed farmer, that he cannot 
proceed so rapidly in his improvements if limit¬ 
ed to selections not embracing the choicest 
breeds; or confined to crossing as his sole 
means of advancement. Whoever considers 
the immense difference between the various 
races of domestic stock, originally, and not re¬ 
motely, perhaps, deriving their existence from 
the same head, will he struck with the rapid de¬ 
terioration or improvement, resulting in a few 
generations from two opposite modes of treat¬ 
ment. As an apt illustration of the effect oi 
food, climate and management, we would point 
to the English carriage and cart horses, and the 
Shetland pony—the Short horns, and the Kyloo 
and Kerry cattle—the Downs and Cots wolds 
and their meagre, misshapen progenitors—the 
improved pig every where, and the wolfish 
character of the wild boar acquired in two or 
three generations, when driven into the forests 
and abandoned to himself But we need not 
further particularize, as every intelligent and 
observing farmer will find abundant illustrations 
if his range of observation be sufficiently ex¬ 
tensive. R 
Manure. Put on your land all the manure 
that can he scraped from your premises, or that 
you are entitled to from the road. Leave not a 
particle in the barn yard. It matters not how 
coarse or long it is, if you can plough it in. All 
you get from it before another season is clear 
gain, for it will lose hut little more under the 
ground with a crop over it, than exposed to the 
action of the sun and rains in the yard. If it 
cannot he used, place it in heaps and cover 
two feet thick -with earth, which will inhale ana 
retain most of its enriching gases till wanted, 
