64 
A NEW MOLE OF FATTENING HOGS.-AGRICULTURAL PUBLICATIONS.-RECIPES. 
AGRICULTURAL PUBLICATIONS AND 
SOCIETIES. 
I have been a subscriber to your periodical from 
its commencement, and have witnessed with pleasure 
the favor it has received from an intelligent com¬ 
munity, and now heartily congratulate you on its 
success and its usefulness; and indulge the hope 
that no friend of the great branch of national in¬ 
dustry which it advocates with so much intelligence 
and ability, will be backward in still further pro¬ 
moting its present extended circulation. 
The improvement of the agricultural condition of 
the State, will progress in a ratio proportionate to 
the intelligence possessed by the cultivators of the 
soil. Hence the great utility of a liberal patronage 
to well conducted agricultural papers, to awaken an 
interest and diffuse useful information ; and it seems 
to me no means can be more efficient in promoting 
this end, than the circulation of such papers as the 
Agriculturist and others as conducted in this State. 
In connection with these papers, every county in 
the State should organize and keep in active and 
efficient operation well conducted agricultural socie¬ 
ties, co-operating with the great State Society which 
has been so useful to this great interest. 
Troy, December 21 st, 1846. Geo. Vail. 
A NEW MODE OF *FATTENING HOGS. 
A great change has taken place in the minds of 
some of our largest planters. They are gradually 
dropping the system of purchasing everything used 
on the plantation. Numbers are making their own 
pork, and this is a great item in economy. A notion 
is now prevailing, of making pens about 6 feet 
square, and in winter, giving slops morning and 
evening, with plenty of fresh water during the 
day, and one ear of corn shelled in their trough at 
noon. The pen must have a good smooth plank 
floor and a shelter to protect the occupants from the 
sun and rain This plan, I assure you, will pro¬ 
duce from a six month pig on the following January, 
a hog weighing 200 lbs. 
Permit me to offer the following suggestions to 
those who wish to try the above method. Erect a 
number of coarse cabins, say 12 feet by 12 feet. 
Divide these into pens, with slabs, into four apart¬ 
ments, making them 6 feet square. A good floor 
well fitted together and smooth, a water-tight roof, 
with a trough of plank at one end for slops, food, 
and water, completes the whole. I would convey 
the water to the houses by means of pipes of cane, 
or wooden troughs, so that from a large reservoir 
it can freely flow to each. I would make the house 
dark by means of a door. As for food, the course 
as recommended above is very good ; but a small 
garden or patch of vegetables for the use of the 
hogs, would be a great acquisition. A state of re¬ 
pose is the best for accumulating adipose tissue 
on any animal, which is taught by common ex¬ 
perience ; and whenever there is an irritant, the 
pulmonary and cutaneous transpiration is accele 
rated. Consequently the fatty matter is thrown 
off. The French have improved on this. They 
take a chicken, and after making a capon of him, 
confine him in a narrow space so that he cannot 
turn nor move, and after feeding him for a few 
days, it is astonishing how suddenly the animal 
becomes loaded with fat. Upon this principle I 
would make my pens contracted, in order to shut 
off the light and heat. A horse, for example, will 
not fatten, however highly fed, during our hottest 
summer months. This proves my theory. 
The benefit of this manner of feeding is its 
cheapness and convenience, as one hog will con¬ 
sume during the year, just two barrels of corn. 
Some one has recommended building a pen near 
each negro cabin, and making the occupant regu¬ 
larly feed and water the hog. At the same time 
promising to give him an eighth, or a quarter of the 
animal when sold. This will stimulate him to feed 
him well. James S. Peacocke. 
Redwood, La., October 2 6th, 1846. 
VALUABLE RECIPES FOR COOKING INDIAN 
CORN. 
The two following recipes from A. Barclay, Esq., 
H. B. M. Consul at New York, we extract from the 
Memoir on Indian Corn, lately compiled under the 
direction of the American Institute. It was after 
these recipes that the samples of excellent hommony 
and hommony bread were made and presented to 
the New York Farmers’ Club by Mr. Barclay, a 
notice of which will be found on page 203 of our 
last volume. 
How to Make Hommony. —Wash a pint of grits 
(particles of flint-corn ground to one-fourth the size 
of a grain of mustard, with the finer parts of the 
flour separated by a sieve) in two or three w T aters, 
taking care each time to let them settle. When 
you pour off the w T ater the grits must be well rub¬ 
bed w r ith the hands in order to separate them from 
the finer particles of flour. Then put them into a 
saucepan with a pint of water slightly salted, and 
let them boil slowly for nearly half an hour, occa¬ 
sionally stirring the mixture as soon as it begins to 
boil. 
Hommony may be boiled to any consistency, 
that may be preferred, from that of mush to the 
dryness of rice. 
Excellent Hommony Bread. —Break 2 eggs into a 
bowl and beat them from five to ten minutes. Add 
by continually stirring, a salt-spoon of table salt, 
4 or 5 tablespoonfuls of hot hommony reduced 
nearly to the consistency of thick gruel with hot 
milk, 1 large spoonful of butter, and a pint of 
scalded Indian meal squeezed dry. Make up the 
mixture into small loaves or round cakes lj> inches 
thick, and bake in a brisk oven. 
Expansion of Bodies by Heat.— A mass of lead 
that occupies the space of 350 cubic inches at 32° F. 
will expand, if heated to 212° to 351 inches. 
Glass, by the same increase of temperature, expands 
l-1200th part of its bulk; mercury, 1-55th part; 
water, l-22d part; and alcohol, or spirit of wine, 
l-9th part of its bulk. 
A bar of glass 1200 inches long, will increase in 
length by the change of temperature from 32° to 
212° F , 1.04 inches A bar of platinum, of the 
same dimensions and change of temperature, will 
lengthen 1.04 inches; steel, 1.47 inches; iron, 1.51 
inches; copper, 2.4 inches; brass, 2.3 inches; tin, 
2.9 inches ; lead, 3.45 inches; and one of zinc, 3.6 
inches 
