i8Gaj 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
331 
with as much corn meal, mixed with skimmed 
milk or dishwashings, as she can consume dur¬ 
ing the time the pigs remain with her. The 
young pigs remain with the sow eight weeks, 
when the sow is removed and runs at large. 
The pigs are fed with slummed milk and dry 
corn meal, in separate troughs, until there is a 
good covering of clover on the ground, when 
they are put into pasture, and the milk and meal 
gradually reduced. After about a month they 
will be quite able to live and thrive under the 
same treatment as the older ones—that is to say, 
clover as the staple article of food, with such a 
supply of skimmed milk and dishwashings as 
the house may afford. 
The sows are allowed to have another litter 
during Summer, which are either used in the 
family as roasters, or sold for store hogs. Early 
in September the hogs are taken up and put into 
pens—say about six in each; potatoes and oth¬ 
er vegetables are steamed and mixed with the 
skimmed milk, etc., from the’house, along with 
a small quantity of ground screenings of grain-, 
or ground barley, and fed three times a day. 
This course is continued about six weeks; the 
quantity of ground barley or screenings is then 
gradually increased, and the steamed potatoes 
and vegetables decreased until the middle of 
November, when corn meal, mixed with such a 
quantity of skimmed milk or dishwashings as 
may be necessary to make it moderately moist, 
is substituted until the middle of December, at 
which time the hogs are slaughtered. In this 
way hogs are brought to weigh over three hun¬ 
dred pounds at the age of about ten months. 
The hams and shoulders are then cured thus: 
A mixture of one fourth brown sugar to three 
fourths dry salt is made; the hams and shoulders 
being placed in a large salting tub (water and 
brine proof), the skin side downwards, are then 
covered with the above mixture of salt and su¬ 
gar, say a third of an inch thick, a little salt and 
sugar being applied from time to time on such 
portions of the meat as become uncovered by 
the formation of brine—particular care being 
taken to keep the meat well covered near the 
bone. The hams and shoulders from hogs of 
about three hundred pounds require to remain 
in the tub under this treatment, about three 
weeks. They are then hung up in a dry room, 
for a week, afterward put into the smoke house 
and smoked with corn cobs for a month. They 
are then sewed in cotton bags and lime-washed. 
Thus secured, there is no difficulty in their keep¬ 
ing g:ood for twelve months. Hams and shoul¬ 
ders cured as above, are always saleable at top 
prices for family use. No distant market is 
necessary, the demand of the immediate neigh¬ 
borhood being always greater than the supply. 
In regard to the side meat, the first care is to 
have clean, sweet barrels. Each side being cut 
into three pieces, is packed thus: the bottom of 
the barrel is covered with salt about an inch 
thick; the flesh side of the pork is then covered 
with a thin coat of salt and packed as closely as 
possible in the barrel; between each layer of 
meat about half an inch of salt is applied. When 
filled, the top receives a similar coat of half an 
inch of salt, and the barrel is then headed up. 
Meat thus cured from hogs fatted as described, 
brings a full price here, and is always saleable. 
Pigs dropped about the middle of February, 
will be ready to take off from the sow about the 
time when most cows are coming in, and the 
farmer is thus enabled to give them a plentiful 
supply of milk. They are fat when taken from 
the sow and thus are kept fat. The meat while 
heavy, is young and tender, and a preference is 
always given to such pork in every market. 
Query .—Is it profitable to raise hogs in any 
of the Eastern or middle States ? 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Will it Pay to Winter Turkies. 
The great seasons for the sale of poultry are 
Thanksgiving and Christmas, and then the 
market is abundantly supplied, and prices rule 
low. Farmers are anxious to sell their fowls to 
get rid of the expense of keeping them through 
the Winter, when their appetites are ravenous, 
and the corn and boiled potatoes disappear rap¬ 
idly. It is clear it will cost something to keep 
them; it may not be so clear that it will pay. 
A little transaction of my own, last Winter, 
may throw some light upon this question. I 
bought a flock of twelve turkeys—the mother 
bird, and eleven young ones—the last of August, 
' the average live weight of the,young being about 
two pounds apiece. They were killed along as 
wanted in the family from November to March, 
and the monthly gain in weight was about two 
pounds and a half for the hens, and three 
pounds for the gobblers. They gained quite as 
much in Winter, as in the Fall, living upon 
corn, oats, boiled potatoes, and having access to 
the pigs’ troughs. The number of males was 
six, and the weight of the mother ten pounds. 
The market price of turkeys was eight cents, in 
November, and thirteen in February. Had 
they all been killed November 1st, they would 
have weighed about 93 pounds, and come to 
$7.44. Had they all been kept to the 1st of 
March, they would have weighed about 215 
pounds, and come to $27.95. The double gain, 
in weight and price, is an important considera¬ 
tion. The gain in weight was more rapid than I 
had supposed, before applying the steelyards. 
The experiment furnishes a useful hint to 
farmers, and to villagers. If prices are not sat¬ 
isfactory, it will pay to hold on, and keep feed¬ 
ing poultry. The growth, and the increased 
price, in mid-winter and Spring, will pay for 
feed and leave a handsome profit, I think. 
I find it difficult to raise turkeys, on account 
of my own and my neighbors’ gardens. But the 
garden is out of the way by the 1st of Sep¬ 
tember, and a late brood of turkeys bought of a 
farmer, will do no damage. They are about as 
easily managed as a hen and chickens, and give 
a great deal of satisfaction, where there is room 
for them. They are beautiful to look at while 
growing, and they make roast turkey cheap and 
easy to a good many who do not know exactly 
how to pay the common market price for the 
luxury. This is an item of household economy 
worth looking at by those who have only an 
acre or two of land. So thinks Jonathan. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Saw-Dust for Stables. 
One of the papers reports Dr. Dadd as object¬ 
ing to the use of dry saw-dust as a litter for sta¬ 
bled horses, on the ground that it absorbs the 
natural and healthy moisture from the hoof, and 
renders it brittle and dry, and so leads on to 
cracked and contracted feet, to corns and similar 
diseases. I had supposed this “eminent vet¬ 
erinarian” too sensible to hold such an opinion. 
If the pores of a horse’s foot were open and 
coarse^say like a piece of sugar or a sponge, the 
saw-dust might absorb moisture from them in¬ 
juriously. If I lay a sponge on my hand, it does 
not take up its moisture. If I spread saw-dust 
on my hand, it will absorb whatever perspira¬ 
tion or other wetness there may be on the skin, 
but it will do nothing more. So saw-dust will 
‘take up whatever liquid manure there may 
chance to be on the floor of the stable, but it 
will not suck moisture out of the horse’s hoofs. 
In my own practice, I have long used saw¬ 
dust to keep the horses’ feet moist, though 
I do not, for this purpose, use the dust in a 
dry state. I spread it over the entire floor, 
two inches thick, sprinkling that which is under 
the fore feet with water, just enough to keep it 
moist. The dust under the hind feet-gets mois¬ 
tened in other ways. By this means the hoof is 
kept, soft and moist, almost as much so as if the 
animal were running at large in a pasture. Of 
the valuable liquid manure saved in this way, 
I need not now speak. Experience. 
It Pays to take Care of Implements. 
There is danger lest, in the hurry of work, 
tools large and small, will be exposed to rain 
and sun. When so negjected,. great harm is 
done them. The wood-work shrinks, and 
cracks, and rots, and the iron work rusts and is 
liable to break. Such implements are disagree¬ 
able to work with, and they are continually go¬ 
ing to decay. We believe it would be a saving 
of money, in the long run, to take time, even in 
the busiest seasons, to clean and house daily all 
implements of the farm and the garden. 
The proper care of tools involves the painting 
of those which are ever exposed to the weather, 
such as cavts, sleds, wagons, horse-rakes, etc. 
This may seem a trifling matter to some care¬ 
less farmers, but it is one of great consequence. 
We wish to cite the testimony of a practical 
man, in the Rural New-Yorker, which is right 
to the point. He says: “ I had a sled made in 
the fall of 1834, at a cost of $19.00. I have the 
same sled now (1861) and will warrant it to carry 
as large a load as when it came out of the shop. 
With the exception of the shoes, which are get¬ 
ting very thin, it seems as perfect as when new. 
I have not paid out fifty cents in repairs, except 
for painting. It has been painted twice during 
this time, and has not staid out doors ten nights 
during the whole time. In the fall of 1858, I 
exhibited this sled and one double wagon that 
had been used eight years, one hoe that had 
been in use 20 years, without even a new han¬ 
dle, and one pitch-fork that had been in use 15 
years without even a new handle, at the Adams’ 
Agricultural Fair. I did not expect a premium, 
but was awarded a discretionary premium. ' The 
committee on Tools pronounced them as good 
as new, with the exception of natural wear.” 
A premium wisely bestowed. . And here let 
us repeat an important item, more than once 
stated in the columns of the American Agricul¬ 
turist: A mixture of three parts lard and one 
of resin, melted together, is one of the best coat¬ 
ings for all steel or iron implements. The lard 
makes the resin soft, while the latter is a sure 
preventive against rusting. The mixture is 
good for plows, hoes, axes, indeed for all tools 
and implements, as well as for knives and forks 
packed away. The coating can be very thin. 
Farming in Australia. —A traveler writes 
to one of our papers that - mahogany trees are 
abundant on the Swan River; that farmers are 
clearing up the land, and putting in crops of 
wheat, oats, etc., and that <“ the government is 
making roads and good mahogany iridges /” He 
adds that they have very little thunder there, 
and that Kangaroo flesh is abundant. Do any 
of our enterprising farmers wish to migrate? 
