BERKSHIRE PIGS.—GRAFTING. 
175 
variety in Georgia, and can be had green from 
June until October. 
We have a fine prospect for wheat and other 
small grain this year. The spring has been mild, 
and our corn is now large enough to hoe. Cotton 
mostly planted and some just coming up. Fruit 
looks promising. D. B. 
Bellevue, Talbot Co., Ga., April 15,1844. 
BERKSHIRE PIGS. 
A year ago last fall, after selecting my hogs for 
fatting, I had on hand about 40 pigs, consisting of 
culls, runts, and all sorts of outcasts from the pig¬ 
gery, and debated some time in my mind whether 
I would cut their throats and send them adrift, or 
winter them. But my kindlier feelings prevailed, 
and I resolved to winter them, or make the trial at 
least, as I had plenty of coarse feed. The winter, 
however, proved an uncommonly hard one, and 6 
or 8 of the pigs died before spring. After the warm 
weather opened, they were turned out to scrub as 
they could, and through the summer foraged a 
tolerable living, partly in the woods, and partly in 
■an old pasture. They thus remained, not having 
been fed at all through the summer, and grew 
•tolerably. Early in September I put them into a 
neighboring distillery to fat on shares. The owner 
and myself estimating that after four months good 
keeping on slops, they would weigh about 150 lbs. 
net, on an average. At that time he had com¬ 
mon hogs in his pens that would weigh over 200 
lbs. alive, which were fed equally well with mine 
till slaughtered. 
My pigs, 32 in number, were fed five months, 
and slaughtered. Their net weights were from 
206 to 295 lbs. each, averaging 240 lbs., and out¬ 
weighing the common hogs fed side by side with 
them, which were double their size when shut up. 
These Berkshires would have weighed but little 
over 100 each, alive, on the average, when put up. 
The pork was very fine, and the hams, shoulders, 
•and jowls I have never seen surpassed. The slops 
were of corn chiefly, and very rich, and thick. 
The proprietor of the distillery has had great ex¬ 
perience in fatting pork, and he declared to me 
that these Berkshires had done better by 25 to 50 
per cent., than any other hogs he had ever fed. 
He never had any Berkshires before these which 
were throrough-bred. There can be no doubt of 
the superiority of the Berkshires as a feeding hog. 
L. F. Allen. 
Black Rock, Feb., 1844. 
GRAFTING. 
1. In general, select your scions from the outside 
branches of healthy trees, just in their prime, or at 
full bearing, about midway in their heads, and 
rather on their sunny sides, where the juices of the 
wood have been properly digested by sun and air. 
Let them be the young shootings of last summer’s 
growth ; but in old or sickly trees, take them from 
the most vigorous branches in the centre of their 
tops. Grafting may be performed, however, with 
the shoots of the current year, as well as with 
those of several years’ growth. 
2. Cut your scions several weeks before the sea¬ 
son of grafting arrives, in order that the stocks may 
advance over them in forwardness of vegetation, 
and bury them, of full lengthen dry earth or clay, 
which must be kept out of the reach of frost till 
required for use. 
3. The best time for grafting is when the sap 
of the stocks is in brisk motion, which occurs in 
deciduous trees a few weeks before they put forth 
their leaves; but reproductive evergreens may be 
grafted during summer as well as spring. The 
periods of the flow of sap should nearly coincide 
between the scions and stocks. 
4. After making choice of the proper season, 
and all things are in readiness, let the operation of 
grafting be performed as quickly as possible. For 
dwarf trees, head down the stocks to within a few 
inches of the ground, or even below the surface. 
For standard trees, or those designed to obtain 
their full height, engraft on vigorous branches, 
situated about midway in their summits, and well 
exposed to the sun and air. Ordinarily, the scions 
may be from one fourth of an inch to one inch in 
diameter; but if necessity requires, they maybe 
much larger or smaller. Let the stocks and sci¬ 
ons, if possible, be of the same thickness, in order 
that the inner bark of both will exactly unite, and 
facilitate the flow of the sap. The middle portion 
of the scion is best; but when there is a scarcity, 
both the top and bottom parts may be used. Take 
off a little of the lower end of the scion first, and 
then cut it in length, so as to leave from two to 
five eyes or buds for the production of branches, 
always taking care to cut off the top in a 
slanting direction. Two eyes will be sufficient for 
a standard tree, but four or five are better for 
dwarfs which are intended to be trained. 
5. For small grafts, less than half of an inch in 
diameter, adopt the whip or splice method. 
Splice-Grafting.—Fig. 39. 
Cut the stock a with a sharp knife, in an oblique 
direction without starting or bruising the bark, and 
