366 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ May 6, 1887. 
The important fact should not he forgotten that pork 
is a marketable commodity, either in the form of the living 
animal, or as pork, bacon, hams, and lard. Although we 
have an annual importation of bacon and hams worth 
from eight to ten million pounds, yet prime Wiltshire 
bacon, York hams, and Bath chaps continue to command 
the highest market prices. This fact is most important 
to farmers, for it is simple nonsense to suppose that 
curing bacon and hams cannot be done as well in other 
parts of the country. That Wilts bacon and York hams 
should be so famous as to command a special market 
value is just owing to the perseverance, skill, and enter¬ 
prise of certain persons in those counties. We may say 
without fear of being accused of egotism that we have had 
hams, chaps, and flitches cured at the home farm that 
were equal, and in the opinion of many superior, to any 
that could be purchased. 
What we want to see upon farms generally is not only 
a greater number of pigs, but a systematic arrangement 
for the manufacture of cured pork at every farm. Some 
twenty or thirty years ago it was customary for a certain 
number of fat hogs to be killed and the pork cured for 
home use in the form of pickled pork, bacon, and hams. 
Pickled pork when well managed is really a tempting and 
palatable article of diet. It is neither white nor yellow 
in colour, soft nor flabby, but is tolerably firm and pink 
in colour. Some practical knowledge of the process of 
pickling is of course necessary to enable one to be success¬ 
ful ; it is, however, so simple that with the exercise of due 
care and painstaking there is little risk of failure. That 
is the point, painstaking, for without it we can hardly 
expect to be successful. Often do we see what the dealers 
term prime pickled pork exhibited for sale which we know 
at a glance to be anything but prime, so too there is much 
of the imported bacon that is very inferior. 
It may be said that the rearing and fattening of pigs 
for market falls more within the scope of a farmer’s busi¬ 
ness than killing and curing them does. If we were to 
concede this point we must still insist upon better practice 
in pig management generally. To begin with, a farmer 
should always breed enough pigs upon the farm for his 
requirements. Although precise calculations of results 
beforehand are unwise because they are unsafe, yet calcu¬ 
lations there must be, and we have only to allow a reason¬ 
able margin for accidents and failures to render them 
reliable. For example, a sow gives two farrows of pigs 
yearly, one in spring, the other in autumn. The best age 
at which to allow a young sow to begin breeding is twenty 
months, and if a sow rears two dozen pigs yearly that 
would be very satisfactory. At one of our farms four 
young sows had forty pigs in March; the farrows of older 
sows often range from a dozen to twenty pigs, so that an 
average of two dozen pigs to each sow is a fair one. 
But it very seldom answers to say so many sows, so 
many pigs, for piggy’s career is beset with much risk at 
the outset. The sow may lie upon and crush or smother 
them, or if, as sometimes happens, the side teeth of the 
pigs are long they scratch the teats as they suck, the pain 
renders the sow savage, she turns upon the pigs, bites 
them, and if she makes them bleed the taste of the blood 
is quite sure to make her eat them. The remedy is to 
take away the pigs and draw the long teeth with a pair of 
pincers, but this must be done at once, and before the 
teats have been so much hurt as to cause soreness and 
inflammation. There will then be no difficulty to induce 
the sow to allow the pigs to suck and to be gentle with 
them. The sow ought never to farrow in a small sty, but 
it should have a large one with a projecting shelf or rail 
all round the sides about a foot wide and a foot above the 
floor. There will then be no risk of the pigs being 
crushed beneath her. Floors of asphalte or Portland 
cement sloping to a gutter are best, and there should only 
be enough straw for the sow’s bed. It is undoubtedly 
owing to the filthy condition in which piggeries are 
suffered to remain week after week that there is so much 
disease among pigs, yet by the exercise of ordinary care 
and cleanliness all risk of loss from swine fever might be 
avoided. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Free, growth is still prevented by frosty nights and cold winds ; 
growth is, however, perceptible even on the most backward pasture, and 
the roller lias been kept going upon all grass reserved for hay. This 
work has been done much later than usual, both because we were so 
busy upon the arable land, and because the pasture was so dry and hard 
that rolling would have done no good. The slow growth of grass tries 
the resources of flock masters severely, and for the next week or two it 
will be critical work to keep the lambs going satisfactorily. We have 
been singularly fortunate in having an abundance of green food, and our 
store of roots holds out so well that we shall have plenty both for the 
wet and thy flocks. To the somewhat numerous applicants for the hire 
of grazing land for sheep we have been very outspoken about the bad 
practice of sowing green crops for spring upon land out of condition. It 
is either from carelessness, ignorance, or prejudice that this is done. Any 
land will do for a piece of Rye is the common idea, but we cannot agree 
that any farm crop is of so little importance as to be unworthy of care¬ 
ful cultivation. Since writing our last note we have had some nice 
showers of rain, heavy enough to get down to the roots of growing 
crops, and therefore well calculated to do much good. Mangold seed 
will now germinate quickly ; chemical manure, too, isylissolved ; the soil 
is charged with food ready to be absorbed by plant growth, and with a 
change to warmer weather growth of more than usual rapidity may be 
expected. As the sheep pass onwards in folds over Rye the ploughs 
should follow closely, especially if any of the land is required for early 
T ornips. We began our autumn folding upon early Turnips last year to 
the advantage both of the sheep and the land. This was on a heavy 
land farm where sheep have not answered very well in midwinter, and 
therefore we begin folding as early as we can in order to do as much of 
it as possible before very cold weather sets in. We have no faith in the 
common assertion that sheep cannot be wintered upon heavy land, and 
are having much of this farm drained in view of a much more extensive 
use of sheep upon it. While avoiding extremes we certainly do like to 
go as far as we can with animals or crops out of which even a little 
money is to be made. 
LETTER BOX. 
Steamed Bone Flour ( W. J .).—The sample of bone flour which you 
sent us is not steamed bone flour, nor can we recommend its use as a 
substitute, because it is so badly ground that its action must be slow. 
There is still so much ignorance of what steamed bone flour really is, even 
among dealers in artificial manures, that we may explain that the bones 
have been subjected to steam at high pressure to extract the glue or gelatine. 
The residue contains about 60 per cent, of phosphates, and from 1 to 2 
per cent, of ammonia. It is friable, and can be crushed with the hand. The 
grinding is therefore such an easy matter that it is reduced to an impalpable 
powder, and it is the quick action of this powder or flour which renders it so 
valuable for plant food. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lat. 51°32'40" N.; Long, 0° 8'0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAT. 
1887. 
• o oS . 
Hygrome- 
d . 
O-a 
E a 
J— 
Shade Tem- 
Radiation 
d 
gcoco © 
sL & 
ter. 
perature. 
Temperature. 
« 
April. 
£( o a 1 -* 
In 
On 
Dry. 
Wet. 
5 o 
Eh 
Max. 
Min. 
sun. 
grass 
Sunday . 
24 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
In. 
29.308 
45.6 
43.5 
S.F. 
47.7 
55.7 
40.4 
99.8 
36.4 
0.298 
Monday. 
25 
29.726 
49.7 
44.2 
S.E. 
47.2 
50.8 
40.3 
78 2 
35.3 
0.099 
Tuesday ... 
2d 
29951 
48.6 
42.8 
s.w. 
45.7 
54 8 
33.4 
101.2 
2G.8 
0.163 
Wednesday. 
27 
29.893 
44.8 
40.0 
w. 
45 2 
516 
35 8 
102.2 
30.2 
0.177 
Thursday... 
28 
30.028 
44.8 
41.1 
YY. 
44.4 
56.7 
33.1 
94.6 
27.4 
0.195 
Friday . 
29.888 
42 7 
40.9 
N. 
44.8 
51.2 
37.6 
84.6 
37.6 
_ 
Saturday ... 
80 
30.094 
45.4 
41.6 
3ST.E. 
44.8 
54 9 
37.8 
98.3 
30.3 
29.84 L 
45.9 
42.0 
45.7 
53.7 
36.9 
94.1 
32.0 
0.9J2 
REMARKS. 
21th.—Cloudy, with frequent Btorms of rain from 1 A.M. to 10.30 A.M.; fine and bright 
till 3 30 P,M.; then a heavy storm of rain and hail, and a showery evening. 
25th.—Bright early; dull showery day; fair evening. 
26th.—Bright morning; cloudy afternoon ; wet evening; clear night. 
27th.—Brilliant early ; showers at 0.30 P.M., with soft hail at 0.40 P.M.; wet afternoon, 
with occasional hail. 
28th.—Fine, but not very bright; wet evening and night. 
29th.—Cloudy morning ; fair afternoon. 
80th.—Fine, with little sunshine. 
A week with a considerable fall of rain, bat much fair weather and some sunshine, 
though rather cold and backward. Temperature about 5° below that of the preceding 
week, and nefrly the same amount below the average.—G. J. Symons. 
