58 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
MANAGEMENT OF A STOCK OF HOGS. 
Does it pay to keep hogs upon a farm 1 
that is the question. We don’t know 
that it does, but we think it ought to pay. It 
is getting to be a general impression, that to 
raise one's own pork, and to save one’s own 
bacon, is an expensive luxury. We do not 
think it is necessarily so, and will give our 
young friends and others who want advice a 
few practical hints on this subject. 
A good breed of hogs you must have to 
start with, and thanks to the improvements 
of the day, you can easily get. No matter 
how good the breed, however,never suppose 
he is to live and thrive without proper and 
sufficient food. The more artificialthe breed 
and the more highly improved, and the more 
capable o; yielding a profit to good manage¬ 
ment and proper treatment, the less capable 
they will be of shifting for themselves. If 
you want a hog that will take care of him¬ 
self, tear your neighbor’s cornfield to pieces, 
and yield you no profit, get the land shark, 
with his nose, back, and belly exactly suited 
to carrying out the intelligent designs of an 
animal which, from its earliest infancy, has 
been thrown upon its own resources. 
Having got a good breed, have a generous 
confidence that he will repay your most care¬ 
ful attention. It is desirable to have a per¬ 
manent fixture, a lot of one or two acres, ac¬ 
cording to the number you keep, and in this 
have good lodging pens, where in all weatber 
they may have dry' beds of leaves, and make 
themselves quite comfortable—these may be 
made of logs, as is very common on large 
farms, but made of posts with plank on the 
most economical scale, are cheaper, perhaps, 
in the end. Give him any amount ofliberty 
which may suit your convenience—let him 
roam in the woods in winter,or in the pas¬ 
ture in summer, but have your lot and your 
houses where you can at your pleasure 
bring them under proper restraint, and give 
them proper protection. This lot will be 
very useful likewise to put your pen hogs 
into for a week or so, in anticipation of their 
closer confinement in their feeding pens, 
that the change may not be too sudden from 
their “ larger liberty.” 
Management of a Slock of Hogs .—The usu¬ 
al practice in the management of hogs is to 
keep the whole stock for the fall killing, 
through the previous winter. In this prac¬ 
tice lies perhaps, the secret of want of suc¬ 
cess in hog-keeping. The most economical 
method, we are inclined to think, would be 
to keep sows enough to have the whole 
stock of pen hogs come about the 1st March ; 
to be well prepared with ruta-baga turnips, 
or other roots, a lot of rye or other early 
pasture, and clover field, to furnish both 
sows and pigs with full supplies of succulent 
food from the start, and throughout the sea¬ 
son. Such management may bring any tol¬ 
erable breed to a weight of 150 to 175 lbs. 
by the middle of December. 
This plan would require for a pen of forty 
hogs, eight brood sows. These sows with 
the boars, would be the whole stock to be 
wintered. They should be so managed that 
they would bring their pigs by the the 1st of 
March, and allowing for miscarriage or other 
accidents, might be relied on to average five 
to the sow. The sows being allowed to 
breed again, would have as many or more 
pigs about the 1st of September. These in 
a good pasture would cost very little to raise 
them, and might be disposed of in the fall, 
leaving only the stock of sows and boars 
after the annual killing. Of the eight sows, 
four might go into the fattening pen annually 
to be substituted by four young ones, so as 
to have always one-half the number, old 
breeders. When this is done, it would be 
advisable not to allow the four which are to 
go into the fattening pen, to breed in the 
summer. 
Another arrangement, a compromise be¬ 
tween tins plan and the common method 
would be, for a pen of the size mentioned, 
to have four brood sows. The August and 
September litters of these, being kept in 
good condition, would go easily through the 
winter with proper care, and with the four 
sows and boar would constitute the stock to 
be wintered. Then taking the March litter 
as before, force them rapidly forward, and 
unless the fall litter has been particularly 
well kept, these will rival them in the killing 
pen. We think either of these suggestions, 
under judicious management, would take 
the balance of the hog account from the loss 
to the profit side. True economy in the 
management of all animals requires that they 
be carried as rapidly as possible through the 
chances of life to that point of development 
which they afford a return, and he is the 
best manager who approximates this in his 
practice. Old habits and old prejudices will 
fight against it, but Ave will come to it by 
and by. 
Feeding. —A com and cob crusher the 
man who keeps twenty hogs must have— 
that is settled. A boiler we think he will 
have, if he is determined to make the most 
of his means. He should grind every ear of 
corn, and soak a number of hours at any 
rate, if he does not steam or boil. If he only 
soaks, he should have two tubs, to be fed 
from alternately, and whenever he empties 
one, fill it again. If it ferments somewhat, 
it will be the better. Boiling, however, 
would be much better, and insure the appro¬ 
priation of the whole nutritive matter. This 
food, with ruta-baga turnips, or other roots 
boiled or unboiled, both occasionally per¬ 
haps, and in such quantity and proportion as 
your judgment and experience may direct, 
will be the proper food for your sows—giv- 
ing them enough only to keep them in good 
condition during the period of gestation, and 
ample supplies when nursing. A rye pas¬ 
ture will give early and valuable green food, 
(rye for this purpose should be sown bush¬ 
els to the acre,) and the red clover succeed¬ 
ing, will keep up the supply. The pigs to 
be weaned at ten weeks old, but to be accus¬ 
tomed, long before that, to eat from troughs 
in pens from which the mothers are ex¬ 
cluded. When weaned, see that they do 
not lose ground, but push them on. The 
sows, if well fed, will soon breed again in 
time to bring their litters by the last of Au¬ 
gust. These litters, if your sows have a 
good wood range, we have known run till 
Christmas without a grain ofcorn, and make 
very good thrifty shoats. The feeding of all 
intended for the fattening pen must be regu¬ 
larly carried on through the season. An 
aere or two, or more, of field peas would be 
desirable pasture for them about September. 
By the beginning of October they should be 
brought into the inclosure mentioned in the 
beginning, their ground corn gradually in¬ 
creased, with pumpkins, &c., and by the 
middle of October, have them in their pens 
on full allowance of corn until fat—taking 
advantage of the moderate fall weather for 
fattening, and killing on the increase of moon, 
not that we believe in the moon, not at all, 
but that’s as good a time for killing as the 
decrease, and why not take all the chances 
against shrinkage in the pot. 
The points that we would press as to 
feeding, is a generous supply from the be¬ 
ginning, but moderate or full in proportion 
as you may want a moderate size—say 150 
lbs., or a larger, say 200, or more. We re¬ 
commend a gradual change from pasturage, 
increasing the supply of more nutritious 
food until he can, without injury to his diges¬ 
tion, take a full supply—also gradual change 
from a free range, first to his lot of an acre, 
and then to his close feeding pen. Then we 
recommend the most thorough preparation 
of his food by grinding and boiling. These, 
with tight, dry pens, will settle the question 
whether hogs will pay the cost of their keep. 
If the reader thinks he will further test the 
matter, let him open such an account as the 
following. It will add much to the interest 
of his farm operations to have a number of 
such accounts, and tend to promote accuracy 
and care in the general conduct of his busi¬ 
ness transactions : 
Slock of Hogs to A. B. A. Hr. 
To value of stock of Hogs on hand 1st January, 
say eight brood of Sows, at $10....$S0 00 
OneBoar.:. . 15 00 
To Corn furnished them for 3 months, ) „„ „„ 
To Ruta bagas “ “ “ j sa y 3000 
To Corn, Pasturage, &c., from 1st April to 1st 
of October, say. 04 00 
To feed and attendance on pen hogs.120 00 
American Farmer. 
How to Cut Hedges. —Almost all the 
thorn hedges one sees are chipped square, 
i. e., the top is made flat and the sides per¬ 
pendicular, the object apparently being to 
make them as much like a wall as possible. 
An observation I heard made lately seems to 
have a great deal of truth in it, viz., that this 
system has a great tendency to make the 
hedge grow thin below, and that it is a much 
better way to keep it widest at the base and 
let it gradually taper to a point at the top. I 
have certainly seen hedges managed in this 
way present a beautifully close surface, 
which I attribute to the plan of allowing a 
much greater number of shoots to reach the 
outside. Hedges kept square are very apt, 
when old, to get “blanky,” and grow bare 
near the ground, even though the top maybe 
quite thick and flourishing. In this case 
there is no remedy but cutting down, always 
a disagreeable necessity, for then all shelter 
is gone at once, whereas this would very 
seldom be necessary if the hedge was kept in 
a pyramidal shape, for then there would al- 
