170 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Mat, 
Walks and Talks on the Farm—Ho. 65. 
A farmer in this vicinity, who is a liberal feed¬ 
er, a mouth or two ago killed a hog that weighed 
G50 pounds, and he got over $100 for him. He 
was twenty months old. This will pay. But I am 
told by a large dealer that the demand for such 
excessively large hogs is falling off. “ Even the 
boatmen, who formerly would buy nothing but 
the fattest and heaviest pork, now preferlighter 
pork, provided it is firm and good.” 
I killed and put down this winter a thorough¬ 
bred Prince Albert Suffolk, and also some grade 
Essex. The latter were very fat, and the quality 
and quantity of the lard produced quite excel¬ 
lent. The pork of the Suffolk is good, but that 
of the Essex is far better. It is remarkably 
firm, tender, and fine flavored. It has always 
been claimed for the Essex that they afford 
the best family pork, but I never more than half 
believed it, as breeders are very apt to attribute 
all manner of excellencies to their favorites. I 
am not altogether convinced yet, from the fact 
tiiat the Essex were fed a month later than the 
Suffolk, and were much flitter. A farmer who 
will keep either a Suffolk, Berkshire, or Essex, 
and cross him with good-sized common sows, 
will have pigs that will make pork good enough 
for any man. But one thing is important, what¬ 
ever breed is selected,—he must be thoroughbred. 
It seems impossible to convince farmers of the 
value of an established breed in transmitting 
their good qualities to their offspring. The re¬ 
mark, “ A good hog needs no pedigree,” is sheer 
nonsense. Those who talk in this way only 
exhibit their ignorance of the first principles of 
breeding. It is not enough that the animal to 
be used has the right form and fattening quali¬ 
ties. You want to be sure that his ancestors 
for several generations have had the same quali¬ 
ties, and that they are fully established in the 
breed. Such an animal, when crossed with 
common stock, will impress his qualities on the 
offspring. A grade, or common animal, no 
matter how superior he may be in form, lacks 
tiie necessary force to overcome the defects of 
the animals lie is bred to. This fret is so w r ell 
established, that I have no patience with a farm¬ 
er who will use a cross-bred pig when he could 
buy a first-class thoroughbred for ten or fifteen 
dollars more than he has to pay for the nonde¬ 
script animal he uses. I have no sort of doubt 
that a good grade Essex pig (the offspring of a 
common sow and a thoroughbred Essex) will be 
worth for the butcher at nine months or a year 
old, at least ten dollars more, in proportion to 
cost of feeding, than a common pig. And if 
so, what is the value of a thoroughbred Essex, 
Berkshire, or Suffolk, in a neighborhood of 
farmers with sense enough to patronize him? 
“ As to pasture,” writes our friend in Ohio, 
“you say that one of your fields, the past sum¬ 
mer, supported stock equal to at least two cows 
per acre until after hay harvest. Yes, until after 
hay harvest; but how much slock would it 
have carried after that ? If you have any way 
of making the land in your neighborhood carry 
stock at the rate of one cow per acre say six 
months, I will be under great obligations to 
you if you will tell us how it is done.” 
The field alluded to was plowed up in Au¬ 
gust, and “ fall-fall owed” for spring barley, and 
consequently I cannot tell how much stock it 
would have carried through the season. Proba¬ 
bly not more than a cow to the acre. And dur¬ 
ing tlie month of Antfust, one cow to two acres, 
even, might have had rather a short allowance. 
But it is not necessary to confine stock to one 
field. We have to make hay; and a field of 
rich clover, cut early, would afford good after- 
math by the time the pasture began to fail. Or 
we might soil the cows with green corn fodder 
during a drouth. I will not say that I can take 
a twenty-acre field of grass and make it carry 
twenty cows from the middle of May until the 
middle of October. I should have too much 
pasture at one time, and too little at another. 
But that I can make it produce as much grass 
as twenty cows can eat in six months, I have 
no sort of doubt. I think, in a favorable season, 
I could make it produce as much as thirty cows 
could eat in six months. In Mr. Lawes’ “ experi¬ 
ments with different manures on permanent 
meadow land,” an annual top dressingof mineral 
manures, and 400 lbs. each of sulphate and muri¬ 
ate of ammonia, produced the first year, 6,970 
lbs. of hay per acre ; the second year, 6,940 lbs.; 
and the third year,7,508 lbs.; or an average of 
7,189 His.; while the unmanured plot produced an 
average of only 2,691 lbs. The hay was cut the 
last week in June. The aftermath was allowed 
to grow until October, and was then led off with 
sheep. On the average of the three seasons, 
the unmanured plot kept thirty-three sheep per 
acre for one week, and the plot manured as 
above, sixty-six sheep per acre, for one week. 
This was calculated to be equivalent to 
over half a ton of hay per acre, on the 
basis that the sheep (Hampshire Downs) would 
eat grass equal to sixteen pounds of hay 
per week. This plot, therefore, produced grass 
of the most superior quality, equal to a little 
more than four and a quarter tons per acre. 
And if a large-sized cow or ox will eat grass 
equal to half a ton of hay per month, twenty 
acres of such land would afford grass for over 
twenty-eight cows or oxen for six months. 
I think I can make my land do better than 
this. The field on which these experiments 
were made had been in grass “for certainly 
over a century; indeed,” Mr. Lawes says, “ for 
as long a period as is included in any record 
that can be found relating to it.” Now, how¬ 
ever unprofitable it may be to break up such 
land, there is little doubt that a greater amount 
of produce can often be obtained by so doing. 
Our land is far better adapted to the growth 
of clover than that at Rothamslead, and yet in 
some experiments made while I was there, ten 
thousand nine hundred and twenty-eight 
pounds of clover hay was obtained in one year 
from three cuttings, (June 26th, August 6th, and 
October 19th,) or nearly five and a half tons per 
acre. This produce was obtained from a sim¬ 
ple top-dressing of three hundred pounds of 
sulphate of potash per acre. And from clover 
sown in a “garden soil,” there were cut at three 
cuttings in one year, eighty-nine thousand six 
hundred and twenty pounds of green clover, or 
over forty-four and three-quarter tons per acre, 
or eighteen thousand one hundred and twelve 
pounds of hay,—over nine tons per acre. This 
soil had been used as a kitchen garden for 
“ probably two or three centuries.” It was one 
of those delightful old English gardens that we 
read about so much, but so seldom see in this 
country. It received, doubtless, abundance of 
“spit-manure,” thoroughly incorporated with 
the soil. But I have reason to believe that no 
artificial manure was used. At least I recollect 
once asking the gardener if he used any, and 
he said he did not, and I brought him a little 
superphosphate from the laboratory to use on 
lettuce, and he said the effect was magical. 
Now, if a soil will produce nine tons of hay per 
acre without artificial manures, how much 
stock would it carry if w r e gave it an occasional 
dressingof plaster, superphosphate, guano, etc. ? 
My Ohio friend will laugh at this kind of rea¬ 
soning. But in all seriousness, I believe we 
have little conception of how much grass an 
acre of land can produce. There is, doubtless, 
a limit—perhaps determined by the power of 
the sun’s rays; and if so, we can produce more 
here than in England. But of course the real 
question is, Will it pay ? Each farmer must 
determine this matter for himself. It is often a 
question of capital. But more frequently it is 
a question of faitli and pluck. A farmer, at any 
rate, should determine to cultivate his land a 
little better every year. If on the rich land of 
the Scioto Yalley he cannot bestow cultivation 
sufficient to produce more than thirty-three 
bushels of corn per acre, followed by a crop of 
wheat of eleven bushels per acre, followed by 
clover and timothy that will not support more 
than one cow on two acres, I think the better 
plan would be to plant only half the field to 
corn, and summer-fallow the other half. If the 
corn is cultivated thoroughly, and if the fallow 
is a real summer-fallow, the effect on the wheat 
will probably be very decided, and, at any rate, 
the clover and grass will be vastly better. And 
this good crop of clover can be made the basis 
of further improvement. 
A few days since one of myherses was taken 
lame in the fore leg. He had been drawing 
logs out of tiie woods, and it was thought that 
he had sprained his shoulder. This is a serious 
affair. Nothing but absolute rest will effect a 
cure. But on consulting the authorities, I found 
that Youatt, Mayliew, and McClure, all agree in 
saying that shoulder lameness is of very rare oc¬ 
currence. Youatt says: “ In not more than ono 
case in twenty is the farrier right when he talks 
of his shoulder lameness.” “ The symptoms 
of shoulder lameness can scarcely be mistaken; 
and when I have mentioned them,” says Youatt, 
“ the farmer will recollect that they very seldom 
occurred when the village smith pointed to the 
shoulder as the seat of disease, and prescribed 
for the animal to no purpose. In sprain of the 
shoulder, the horse evidently suffers extreme 
pain while moving, and, the muscle underneath 
being inflamed and tender, he will extend it as 
little as possible. He will drag Ids toe along the 
ground. It is in the lifting of the foot that the 
shoulder is principally moved. If the foot is 
lifted high, let the horse be ever so lame, the 
shoulder is little, if at all, affected.” He gives 
other tests. And a thorough examination satis¬ 
fied me that the trouble was not in tiie shoulder. 
I then concluded to again examine his foot care¬ 
fully, and then I found the trouble. A piece of 
wood, an inch or more long and as thick as my 
little finger, had entered the foot between tiie 
hoof and the frog. It had been broken off 
level with the hoof, and "was nearly concealed 
by the frog. It was not an easy matter to get 
it out. I got hold of it with a pair of pincers, 
but it broke, and I had to cut away tiie hoof 
and dig it out with a knife. So much for con¬ 
sulting “ the books.” I might have doctored 
this horse for shoulder sprain for a couple of 
weeks until the piece of wood worked itself out; 
and at this season of the year the loss of a good 
horse for a week or ten days would amount to 
more than all the best books on the horse would 
cost. The great point when an animal is sick, 
is to find what the trouble is. And I am not 
sure but that the best way is to call in all one’3 
neighbors and let them give their opinions on 
the point. If it should be a case where there 
