222 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
the roller of great advantage on his land, but 
says if used when the ground is the least 
damp, it is sure to cause the earth to bake 
badly, and thus be injurious. From the 
oats we went to the wheat field, which has 
been so badly winter killed that Mr. S. pro¬ 
poses to cut most of it now while green, 
and soil his cattle with it. The grass sown 
with it promises well. He advocates soiling 
cattle, which he has practised almost entire¬ 
ly for the past few years with satisfactory 
results, and thinks it possesses many advan¬ 
tages over the old system of pasturage. He 
uses Indian corn cut green for this purpose, 
planting it in rows 30 inches apart to admit 
the horse hoe between them. This method 
he thinks preferable to sowing broadcast. 
We saw half an acre prepared in this way. 
It was about six inches in height and very 
thick in the rows. A thriving lot of two and 
a half acres of potatoes was next examined. 
The land was plowed last fall ten inches 
deep, and again to the same depth in the 
spring, immediately before planting. It was 
then marked out into rows by the plow, three 
feet apart, and the potatoes planted twelve 
inches from each other in the rows, with a 
handful of poudrette to each set, being at the 
rate of eight barrels to the acre, which was 
the only manure applied. 
Four acres of Indian corn planted the 20th 
of May, was about six inches high and show¬ 
ed a good color. The land for this crop was 
prepared as follows : First, sixty-two two- 
horse loads of barn-yard manure were spread 
over the field, (an old sward,) and plowed 
in about eight inches deep. Thirty loads of 
hog manure were afterward added to the 
hills. 
The old apple orchard, mostly natural 
fruit, contains about three acres. The trees 
are many of them still sound and healthy. 
A part were grafted recently, and all will be 
another season. This orchard is now used 
as a pasture. 
A new orchard of four acres was set out 
four years ago, with 250 apple and 300 peach 
trees. The apple trees were set thirty feet 
apart each way and between the rows peach 
trees were planted. This orchard has been 
cropped mostly with potatoes and other 
roots, which require a frequent stirring of 
the soil. It was ashed at the rate of 100 
bushels to the acre, when the trees were 
first set out, and has since received various 
manures with each succeeding crop. 
This year it contains the following crops : 
H acres of Lima beans planted June 2d; 
i acre parsnips, and £ acre carrots, planted 
June 3d; i acre Mangold wurtzel’s, planted 
June 11th, and 1 acre of white beans planted 
June 20th. 
The manure applied to these crops was 
Peruvian Guano, and Ta-feu (on alternate 
rows,) sprinkled in the drills at the rate of 
200 lbs. to the acre, and covered with two 
inches of soil, after which the seeds were 
drilled in. 
The Lima beans were put in hills 31 feet 
apart eaah way, so as to allow the cultivator 
to be used between them. 
It has been ascertained that the man who 
held on to the last was a shoemaker. 
SWINE FATTENING-DOES IT PAY. 
Many of our friends at the West where 
Corn is a drug at 18 to 25 cents a bushel 
will readily answer yes, it does pay. At 
the East there is a division of opinion. 
When on a grain farm in Western New- 
York our experience was that it was profita¬ 
ble to keep just as many hogs as was re¬ 
quired to glean the stubble in the wheat, 
oats, and pea-fields. After these were 
cleaned up in succession, the swine were 
put into pens, fed awhile on peas and other 
grain, and “ finished off” for a few weeks 
on corn. They were usually slaughtered 
before Christmas. Pork in the carcass was 
then a little lower in proportion to the price 
of grain than now. To the amount above 
indicated pork raising was considered profit¬ 
able, and was continued. 
The profitableness or unprofitableness of 
fattening swine is modified very much by 
circumstances. Experience must be the 
safest guide in each locality. We present 
one ol a series of experiments on this sub¬ 
ject made by Mr. Holbrook, of Brattleboro, 
Vt., as communicated to the N. E. Farmer. 
Mr. H. is a reliable man, and a careful ob¬ 
server. Here is his own account: 
On the 2d of January, 1856,1 commenced 
feeding five lean shoats, weighing respec¬ 
tively, 80, 77, 70, 66 and 61 lbs., or, in all, 
354 lbs., gross weight. They were placed 
in apartments consisting of a compost pen, 
about 10 feet wide, by 14 feet long, and an 
eating-room connected therewith. The lit¬ 
ter made by two horses were daily thrown 
into the pen; scrapings from the woods, 
consisting of leaves, decayed sticks and 
rich mould were occasionally added, say two 
loads or a cord once a fortnight; and clean 
straw was frequently given to the pigs, 
which they arranged in the pen for bedding 
to suit themselves. It was quite an advan¬ 
tage to have the pigs make their bed in the 
compost heap, as the pen not being very 
large, the whole heap was influenced by the 
heat generated by the pigs while lying in 
their bed, so that it did not freeze deeply 
even in the coldest weather. The litter from 
the horses also contributed to keep out frost. 
As in the experiments heretofore made, so 
also in this, the pigs were fed on corn and 
cob meal—the rule being to give them all 
they could eat with a good appetite, and 
keep the trough clean. Immediately after 
feeding them at a given time, the meal for 
the next feeding was placed in a bucket, hot 
water poured on to scald it, and the wash of 
the kitchen afterwards added, the mess 
standing in a warm place the while to soak 
and swell. Each grist of ears of corn, when 
put up to be ground for the pigs, was care¬ 
fully measured, and at once charged to them, 
that all shrinkage from toll taken out or 
otherwise, was placed to their debit. Entire 
accuracy was aimed at in keeping the ac¬ 
count. 
The pigs were thus treated till the 8tli of 
April last, when they were sold to the 
butcher at 9 cents the pound, dressed—he 
charging for the slaughtering. The five 
weighed, dressed, 785 lbs. They consumed 
eighty.four bushels of corn and cob, or forty - 
two bushels of clear corn. During the time 
of feeding, they were supplied with twelve 
loads of raw material from the woods, which 
they pulverised and enriched, and mixed 
with the litter from the horses and the straw 
for bedding, making up a compost of the 
best quality, both as regards material, and 
mode of manufacture. 
Corn was worth in January last, in this 
market, about one dollar and ten cents per 
bushel; but has been gradually falling in 
price, till now it is about eighty cents, by the 
quantity. 
The five pigs may be accounted with as 
follows : 
785 tbs. of pork, net, at 9 cents per ib.$70,65 
Deduct 84 bushels corn and cob, or 42 bushels 
clear corn, at an average price of $1 per 
bushel.$42,00 
Deduct paid for slaughtering the five. 3,75 
Deduct paid for the lean shoats, $4 each.20,00 
- 65,75 
Balance, above the market value of com consumed $4,90 
And the pigs have converted 12 loads of raw 
material into good compost, worth a bush¬ 
el of corn, or $1 per load.$12,00 
From which, if you please, deduct the cost of 
furnishing material, say 50 cents per load, 
which is pretty high. 6,00 
- 6,00 
Profit on the five pigs.$10,90 
This is the sixth experiment I have made 
to ascertain the cost and profit of fattening 
swine, and it shows less profit than any 
other one of the six ; and I attribute the 
smaller return mainly to the extreme and 
long-continued cold weather ol the past win¬ 
ter. Probably, if I had fed these pigs a month 
longer, so as to have given them the advan¬ 
tages of warmer weather, to lay on fat, the 
gain in proportion to the corn consumed 
would have been materially greater than 
now appears. However, extremely unfavor¬ 
able as the season was, the pigs paid 
more for the corn consumed, than it could 
have been sold for in market, by the quan¬ 
tity, and supplied a pile of compost worth 
more than they get credit for in the account. 
Here, in New England, we must use all 
resources available at a reasonable cost, if 
we would keep our best lands up to the de¬ 
sirable pitch of fertility, and much more, if 
we would improve those that have been worn 
by long and severe cropping, or that never, 
by nature, had more than a thin hungry soil. 
The means for the most part employed must 
be those afforded by the farm itself. My ob¬ 
ject, in all these experiments with swine, has 
been to show to myself and to others, one 
of the ways in which the products of the 
farm may be disposed of, so as to give them 
back to it in compost with materials other¬ 
wise lying waste or idle, and get as good a 
price for the crop as though it had been di¬ 
rectly exchanged for money. Here is the 
policy for him who desires to live by farm¬ 
ing : so direct the business as to obtain a 
reasonable return for capital and labor in¬ 
vested, without robbing the soil. He who, 
eager for a present income, regardless of 
the future condition of his farm, takes all 
from it he can get, reluming little or nothing 
back, is not unlike the man in the fable, who 
fortunately possessing a goose that laid a 
golden egg every day, was not content with 
so sure but slow an income, and thinking to 
seize a large treasure at once, mangled and 
