414 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
I 
Walks and Talks on the Farm.—No. 119. 
Our wheat crop in Western New York was 
so poor this season that it is pleasant to hear 
of a good paying crop. Mr. I. K. Ragland, of 
Cooper Co., Mo., writes me that their best 
lands w r ill produce \n good seasons from 20 to 
30 bushels of wheat per acre. “I had,” he 
says, “ from 100 to 105 acres in wheat this year, 
and it thrashed out 2,855 bushels, or nearly 28 
bushels per acre, and I lost a good deal of it by 
its being badly lodged. I used no manure of 
any kind, and not one farmer in a hundred 
ever hauls out a load, and in consequence our 
lands are fast wearing out, and we shall have 
to change our system soon or hunt new lands. 
I keep my land up with clover, which I find 
all sufficient. Our corn crop this year is light, 
owing to the drouth. Our usual crop is from 
40 to 60 bushels per acre.” 
What a grand opportunity such farmers have 
to raise choice stock for breeding and other 
purposes. One of the principal difficulties in 
raising such stock is in procuring succulent 
food in winter. We can raise just as good 
mangel-wurzel in this climate as they can in 
England. With me the only trouble is to get 
manure enough without robbing the rest of the 
farm. But in a country where “ not one farmer 
in a hundred ever hauls out a load” it would 
be an easy matter to put manure enough on a 
good-sized field to produce 40 or 50 tons of 
mangels per acre. I wish I had such a chance. 
I would take a good, clean corn stubble, plow 
it this fall, and during the winter I would haul 
out all the well-rotted manure I could get and 
spread it on the land. Plow in the spring, 
harrow thoroughly, roll, and then drill in the 
mangel seed with a grain drill in rows from 28 
to 36 inches apart. Roll again after the drill. 
Cultivate thoroughly, and thin out the plants 
12 to 15 inches apart. 
“You can do all that here,” remarks the 
Deacon, “just as well as you can in Missouri.” 
Certainly I can. But the trouble here is to 
get the manure. There the stuff goes a-beg¬ 
ging. And this is the point I want to make. 
It requires no more seed and no more labor to 
grow a crop of 50 tons per acre than a crop of 
five tons. And then in harvesting it will re¬ 
quire not one fourth as much labor to gather 
50 tons from one acre as it would to gather 50 
tons from 10 acres. 
“ But,” says the Deacon, “ I thought you con¬ 
tended that a crop of Indian corn was more 
nutritious than an acre of mangels ? ” 
I have said that if we made our land as rich 
for corn as we do for mangels, and cultivated 
as thoroughly, we should get nearly or quite as 
much nutritious matter in the corn and stalks 
as from a crop of mangels. 
Let us not wander from the point. What I 
wish to say is this: If 1 lived in a section 
where manure could be had for the hauling I 
should raise thorough-bred stock and should 
grow large quantities of roots for them. I do 
not say that I could fatten hogs any more 
cheaply on mangels than on corn. But with a 
liberal allowance of mangels in March, April, 
and May I could keep my breeding sows in a 
healthy condition. They would give more 
milk, and I could raise better pigs than where 
the sows have to be fed principally on grain. 
With cheap corn and a good supply of mangels 
for winter (especially for the spring months), 
and good clover and grass pastures for summer 
and autumn, supplemented by a few acres of 
mustard or vetches, there would be money in 
the pig-breeding business. 
The same is true of sheep and cattle. The 
fact that we have to import such immense 
quantities of wool is a standing disgrace to the 
farmers of the United States. I have little re¬ 
spect for the intelligence of the man who tells 
me that good combing wool can be produced 
on the west side of the Niagara River but not 
on the east side; or that it can be produced on 
the east side of the Detroit River and not on 
the west side. 
The Prairie Farmer last week quotes cattle 
in the Chicago market all the way from $1.50 
to $6.30 per 100 pounds, live weight. The 
Prairie Farmer is an earnest advocate of the 
“ Patrons of Husbandry,” and is down on all 
monopolies. It does not say whether there is 
any corporation or ring that has a monopoly of 
these “choice, graded steers.” Were such the 
case the Patrons could add another item to 
their list of grievances. The railroads, I pre¬ 
sume, charge no more for carrying a car-load 
of these choice steers than for a car-load of 
the “rough, green natives” or Texans. In 
other words, they charge no more for carrying 
a car-load of cattle worth say $100 a head than 
for a car-load worth only from $10 to $15 per 
head. Is not this unjust discrimination? 
Seriously, is it not time that we made an 
earnest effort to improve our system of agri¬ 
culture ? The best way to fight the railroads 
is to ship less corn and fewer “ scallawag ” 
cattle. Put the corn into good pork and good 
beef The demand for good meat is greatly on 
the increase in all parts of the civilized world. 
We shall never raise too much good beef and 
mutton. We ought also to grow at least all 
the wool we require. Let the Patrons and the 
farmers’ clubs and the agricultural press turn 
their attention to this subject. It is in this 
direction that we must look for any real im¬ 
provement in our condition. We shall never 
get rich by shipping corn to Europe. 
Mr. Rich, of Delaware Co., Ohio, asks my 
opinion in regard to cooking shelled corn for 
hogs. “ Do you think,” he writes, “ that they 
like it as well as they do uncooked ? It seems 
to me they do not eat it with the same relish 
they do hard corn. And some of the corn will 
about spoil before it is eaten unless we cook 
often and iu small quantities. I sometimes 
feel disappointed, as I have been to the expense 
of putting up a steamer and a heavy corn- 
sheller run by four horses, and after all my 
hogs do not seem to eat the soft corn as well as 
they do hard. Can you tell the reason, or is it 
my imagination? Another objection is, that 
feeding in a large pen, the weaker ones are 
afraid to come to the trough, and will stand 
outside and look on until the corn is all gone.” 
—Put in more troughs and let them have all 
the corn that they can eat. 
“ I am now,” he continues,“ feeding 170 hogs. 
I fed them hard corn in my clover field all 
summer, but in August I put 30 of the largest 
in a pen, and have been feeding cooked corn.”— 
I presume, if they are a quiet breed of hogs, 
they would have done a great deal better in a 
good clover lot, with all or nearly all the hard 
corn they would eat, than they would shut up 
in a pen and fed cooked shelled corn. 
Mr. R. says he “ has read a great deal about 
feeding hogs, and all went to prove the profit 
of cooking.”—For my part, I never believed 
all the stories that are told of the advantages 
of cooking. Far more depends on the skill 
and judgment of the feeder than on cooking 
the food. I am inclined to think, however, 
that Mr. R. does not half cook his corn. I 
judge so from his remark about having to cook 
in “ small quantities.” I use the same steamer 
that he does, and 30 good hogs would eat corn 
almost as fast as I could cook it for them. 
Certainly I should not wish the job of cooking 
corn thoroughly with it for 170 hogs. 
When corn is as cheap as it now is in the 
West I do not think I should cook it or shell it 
for fattening hogs. For young pigs, say from 
three weeks to three months old, I think it will 
pay to grind and cook corn. Such pigs, if 
well-bred, can assimilate more food than thej 
can. digest. But common hogs, from nine to 
fifteen months old, as a rule,will eat and digest 
all the raw corn that they can assimilate. And 
if this is the case, of course there is nothing to 
be gained by cooking. 
I would suggest to Mr. Rich if he continues 
to shell and cook his corn to soak it for 24 or 
48 hours before cooking, and then cook it until 
it will mash up into a paste. Let the pigs eat 
all they will of this, three times a day, and after 
each meal throw them all the ears of com that 
they will eat up clean. The probabilities are 
that they will in this way eat more corn than 
they would if fed on either cooked or uncooked 
food alone. If it is found that they void more 
of the corn undigested, mix say a bushel of 
bran with each bushel of shelled corn when it 
is put to soak, and cook the mixture as before. 
One would think from the prominence that 
is given to the subject by agricultural writers 
that cooking the food was the one thing neces¬ 
sary to success in fattening hogs. Here is a 
letter from a gentleman in Springfield, Ill.: “ I 
wish to ask your judgment about a plan I have 
of feeding hogs on a large scale, which seems 
to me from all the knowledge and experience 
I can get from others to be feasible and very 
profitable. My plan is to erect sheds suffi¬ 
ciently large to hold 300 hogs. Get an engine, 
shell and mill and grind and cook corn meal 
for them. Buy hogs weighing 125 lbs.; keep 
them 70 days, when they ought to weigh 275 
lbs. Sell them and fill the pens agai,n, and do 
so through the year, making from 1,200 to 
1,500 hogs for the year. Hogs can be bought 
at four cents per pound; corn at 30 cents per 
bushel. By buying at four cents and feeding 
70 days, and selling at four cents, there seems 
to be a large margin for profit.” 
Judging from the general style and tone of 
the letter the writer is an educated city gentle¬ 
man engaged in some business or professional 
pursuit. He has a taste for agriculture, and 
is an interested reader of agricultural books 
and papers, but he has had no experience in 
feeding hogs. He evidently believes the stories 
told iu regard to the great advantages of cook¬ 
ing food. I do not say they are not true, but I 
do say to him, very earnestly, “ let the business 
alone.” If farmers are sending their hogs to 
market half fat let them go to market. If it 
will not pay the farmers to fatten them on the 
farm it will not pay you to fatten them in the 
city, unless you want manure, or have food 
that will otherwise go more or less to waste. 
It would probably take the hogs two weeks to 
get over the effect of their journey and to settle 
down quietly to eat and fatten. And instead 
of gaining 175 lbs. in 70 days, I should expect 
300 ordinary hogs in such circumstances to 
gain on the average not over 70 lbs. Then 
