370 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
The Hog Nuisance. 
If “ Sufferer,” who in our July number, p. 203, 
gave an account of his troubles with his neigh¬ 
bor’s pigs, will call into our office, we will now 
give him ocular evidence that he is not alone in 
his sufferings, as we have dire complaints from 
many sections of the country. Really, it would 
seem as if an ancient herd of swine we read of, 
which o-n a certain time took a cold bath in the sea 
of Gallilee, must have come to life again and 
scattered themselves over this country, retaining 
just that “state of mind” they were in w'hen 
they “ ran violently down that steep place.” If 
“our neighbor’s hog” nuisance be one-half 
what it appears to be, it is high time every hog 
owner should at once look to his porkers. There 
should be an immediate rise in the price of wire, 
owing to the immense amount used for snout- 
rings. Seriously, after what we have recently 
read and heard, we should feel constrained to be¬ 
seech every reader of the Agriculturist to look 
into the matter at once and see if he be not one 
of the offenders, but we can hardly believe that 
one of our readers is so indifferent to the rights 
and privileges of his neighbors, as to need a word 
of caution in this respect. It is too much to sup¬ 
pose that any person civilized enough to take and 
read an agricultural paper, would be so careless, 
so ungenerous, as to allow' his hogs to infest a 
neighbor’s premises. If we should hear of any 
such one, the temptation would be strong to re¬ 
turn his subscription money, and stop his paper, 
the sending of which in such a case w'ould cer¬ 
tainly be “ casting pearls before swine.” We can 
not believe there is such a one, and will not 
therefore take up space in arguing the wrong of 
the thing. All that can be said to our folks is to 
throw out a hint or two as to the best means of 
saving themselves from the depredations of out¬ 
siders, and for this purpose we extract sugges¬ 
tions accompanying complaining letters before us. 
“A Sufferer ” writing from Odessa, says he has 
in several instances tried shooting the marauding 
hogs with very fine shot, using only a small 
charge of powder, and standing at such a distance 
that the shot only penetrate the skin on the 
fleshly part of the animal. The swine go home 
squealing, and the owners take a hint to keep 
them out of harm’s way thereafter. He says 
this has each time proved effective, as we doubt 
not it would, but we can hardly recommend the 
practice to general adoption. Everybody might 
not judge accurately as to the amount of powder 
to be used, and the destruction of an animal would 
often occur. Further, it is giving the poor brutes 
long continued suffering for what they are not to 
blame. The owners themselves should take the 
pain if any one, and trying shot on them we 
should not like to recommend. This shooting 
business would in most cases lead to quarrels and 
retaliation. We should prefer, as a last resort, to 
use large shot and pay for the carcasses, if need 
be, making up what we could from the soap-fat 
obtained. 
Another recommends a dose of ipecac mixed 
with tempting food and placed where the pests 
congregate. He says a second dose has some¬ 
times been needed, but never a third. 
Another says he tried collecting the hogs and 
giving them a sound “switching.” A second 
dose on the following day was a sufficient warn¬ 
ing: “ they have not been within a quarter of a 
mile of my field since, though three weeks have 
elapsed.” 
Another recommends a liberal supply of broken 
bottles and other glass-ware strewed in the 
lounging holes of the hogs. Rather a savage dose. 
Another recommends catching the animals as 
often as they come around, thrusting a wire 
through the snout, bending it into a ring and fas¬ 
tening it. 
Another advises to split a strong stick and slip 
it upon the ear of any luckless “foreign pig” 
that comes where it don’t belong. The difficulty 
in such cases w’ould be to catch the animal, for 
hogs of the class complained of are generally the 
long-legged breeds, and to seize them would in¬ 
volve the necessity of keeping a kind of dog which 
is generally a greater nuisance than half-a-dozen 
wild hogs. 
Another says he practised shutting up his 
neighbor’s hogs every time they came on to his 
premises, sending word to the owner that they 
were necessarily confined, and politely requesting 
him to take them away. This proved a perpetual 
cure. 
Another says he first stated the case to his 
neighbor, and then every time the hogs crossed 
to his half of the road, he sent a message, some¬ 
times oral, and sometimes a written one, re¬ 
questing him politely to look after his swine. A 
few warnings of this kind wrought out a cure. 
Other harsher remedies are proposed, but we 
think the last two the better ones, and that they 
will be effectual, in ninety-nine cases out of a 
hundred. We have thus given considerable space 
to this subject, believing that the mere agitation 
of the question will be sufficient to set people 
thinking. Generally most infringements upon 
neighbors are more the result of carelessness, or 
thoughtlessness, than from evil purpose, and a 
hint is sufficient. Show the trespassers this ar¬ 
ticle and the former one, and it will doubtless 
open their eyes. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
“Running in Debt.” 
A large majority, probably five-sixths of the 
farmers of this country owe part of the purchase 
money for their farms, which are mortgaged as 
security for its payment. This is deplored by 
many as an almost unmitigated evil, and they are 
very fluent in expatiating upon the evils which 
they believe are inseparable from such a state of 
things. They represent the debtor as under an 
oppressive bondage that cripples his energies, 
deters him from making needed improvements, 
and compels him to toil year after year, perhaps 
for a lifetime, for the benefit of the creditor, who 
is not unfrequently pictured as a grasping, unre¬ 
lenting, soul-less being. Undoubtedly many 
have unwisely encumbered themselves too heav¬ 
ily, and others, lacking energy, are bearing as a 
burden what they might make a stepping stone to 
competence. The complaints of such have led 
some to conclude that debt is an evil in which 
no farmer should become involved. 
But, although it might indeed be every way 
easier and more agreeable for each to own his 
farm free and unincumbered, not one in a thou¬ 
sand can ever enter this happy experience with¬ 
out the previous purgatory, as some term it, of 
years of debt. The capital necessary to acquire 
a farm, is seldom accumulated by the single ex¬ 
ertions of the man with only his pair of hands. 
Acquiring such a possession maybe compared to 
laying siege to a fortified town. The assailants 
can hardly hope to silence all the batteries and 
effect the capture by one effort. They strive 
first to make a breach, to gain a footing in some 
important point, from which the after operations 
can be conducted to finally reduce the whole 
place. So with the young man who has a com¬ 
petence to conquer by his unaided efforts. He 
must first effect a lodgment upon the desired 
premises, and then if lie have skill and energy he 
makes the farm assist in securing his possession. 
Stock, farming utensils and appliances, which 
would require all his small capital if purchased at 
once, can be acquired gradually while on the farm. 
But there is another positive advantage in debt 
under such circumstances which should not be 
overlooked. It keeps continually before a man 
an object to be attained. The recollection that in¬ 
terest day is coming and that payment must be 
met is a stimulus that overcomes the temptation 
to many an idle hour, calls out the best energy, 
quickens ingenuity, and promotes economy. A 
large plaster of debt, well put on, would be a 
capital application to many a man that is now 
good for very little, not feeling compelled to work. 
No doubt a man might do as much, when free 
from debt, but will he usually 1 The man settled 
upon a place he is striving to secure, is battling 
for his home, every dollar he pays toward it, is a 
nail driven to secure its possession to himself and 
family, and this, if anything, will “bring him out." 
•---- 
Blinks from a Lantern.XI. 
BY DIOGENES REDIVIVUS. 
THE INFATUATION OF MUCH LAND. 
In my peregrinations through the land, in search 
of a farmer, I find the passion for real estate, in 
the shape of more territory, is almost universal. 
It is not indeed a sin peculiar to the Anglo Saxon 
race, for it characterizes all people, as soon as they 
emerge from the savage or nomadic state, and be¬ 
gin to hold the soil in fee simple. It was a strik¬ 
ing feature in the life of the old Greeks, when I 
was about in my first body ; it equally marked the 
Romans ; and though I have not kept strict watch 
of the intervening centuries, I have little doubt, 
it has been perpetuated in unbroken succession 
to modern times. The lust for more territory, 
which has shown itself in the acquisition of Tex¬ 
as, and of repeated slices of Mexico, and which 
now looks longingly to the gem of the Antilles, is 
only the national outgrowth of an individual pas¬ 
sion, seen every where from the lakes to the 
gulf. It is about as strong in the Yankee with 
his three hundred acres, and two hired men, as 
in the planter with his five thousand acres and 
fifty negroes—each having at least five acres 
lying idle, to one worked with any profit. 
The passion prevails not only among the dom¬ 
inant class in the rural districts, but may be said 
to pervade all classes. Multitudes in the city, 
who hardly get time to stop in the country at all, 
own large estates there, and capitalists, who nev¬ 
er expect to work an acre of land, own whole 
townships. Professional men, preachers, poets, 
doctors, lawyers, and politicians, have all their 
bright ideals of some Sunny Side, Idlewild, or 
other clover-nook, in the near future, when they 
will exchange literally “ sermons for stones the 
babbling of verse for brooks that babble in soft¬ 
est music ; pills for pillions and palfreys am¬ 
bling over the smoothest of country roads ; briefs 
for breakfasts at sunrise, and the contemplation 
of broad acres; speeches for peaches, grapes, 
and figs, under one’s own vine and fig-tree. 
Citizen and farmer alike covet a little land, 
moreland, most land, until their capital is nearly 
