26 
HINTS FOR THE SOUTH. 
feet; fine hair; thin, smooth skin ; quick growth, 
with great aptitude to fatten at any age ; and sweet, 
delicate meat. Added to these good qualities they 
possess a docile disposition ; and will thrive and 
keep fat on less food, and that of the coarsest kind, 
than any other breed. Thus high bred they are 
rather delicate animals, susceptible of cold, shy 
breeders, and not very good nurses. They are 
consequently not so profitable a breed for the far¬ 
mer as their crosses. For his stock hogs he wants 
an animal of larger size, stronger constitution, har¬ 
dier, more active, and yet thrifty, quick to mature, 
and reasonably fine in all its points. Of such 
breeds as we consider best for the farmer, and 
which have found most favor in our country, we 
shall treat in our next. 
We wish to observe here, that we are indebted 
1o the courtesy of Messrs. Lea& Blanchard of Phi¬ 
ladelphia, for the cut used in the preceding page, 
and have several more of theirs on hand which will 
be introduced hereafter. They are from the recent 
re-publication of “ The Pig,” a treatise on the 
breeds, management, feeding, and medical treat¬ 
ment of swine, by William Youatt; a highly valua¬ 
ble and entertaining work, which we recommend 
every farmer to possess at once, as he cannot hut 
be highly benefited by its perusal. 
HINTS FOR THE SOUTH. 
See an article from Mr. J. S. Peacocke, of East 
Feliciana, La., Vol. vi., page 340, of the Agricul¬ 
turist. 
Since you say “ a full reply ” to the inquiries of 
the article above alluded to will be given hereafter, 
it is perhaps superfluous in me to add anything; 
but a desultory remark or two, might perhaps be 
indulged in. 
Mr. Peacocke says :—“ We have to buy our own 
meat, both for our tables and our negroes.” Who 
has to 'l Why, the South , according to your corres¬ 
pondent. Col. Fluker, and a few others of the 
“ most enterprising ,” are exceptions j but they raise 
“ not a tithe of what they use.” 
I wish Mr. Peacocke would make a tour through¬ 
out Mississippi, before he writes again, for he mis¬ 
represents us greatly. More than three fourths, I 
suppose five sixths, of the meat consumed in Mis¬ 
sissippi, is raised within her own territory. In 
Louisiana, leaving out New Orleans, I presume 
they raise about three fifths of what they use. 
There is a considerable neighborhood of worn-out 
land in East Feliciana, and some of the thickest 
settlements of large plantations on the Mississippi, 
and the lower bayous, where they depend mostly 
upon the market for their provisions. But they do 
not constitute the “ South.” In this part of the 
country, which is the heaviest cotton region of 
this State, except around and between Natchez and 
Vicksburg, there is scarcely a good planter who 
does not raise his meat. 
I have some acquaintance with farming in the 
West, and it is my opinion this is the best region 
for the raising of pork and beef, I have ever seen in 
the United States. If I had your correspondent 
here, I could show him on a very small plantation, 
two or three hundred grunters in a corn field, w T here 
was left some weeks ago, at least three hundred 
bushels of scattered corn, seventy-five acres very 
heavily stocked with peas, ten acres of turnips, and 
a mass of pumpkins “too numerous to mention 
and it is confidently expected, that after a while, 
some of them will do to eat. And I assure your 
correspondent, that I am far from being “one of 
the most enterprising” in the w T ay of meat raising, 
or anything else. A few days ago, one of my 
neighbors was saying he had more peas in the field, 
than all his stock could possibly eat before plowing 
time, a very common thing here ; he had not yet 
put his hogs on them, for the reason that he 
thought they were doing better on acorns and 
sweet potatoes. “Buy our own meat,” indeed ! 
Come and take a cut of choice ham and bacon with 
us, and judge for yourself. 
As to a recipe for hog raising, I can give a 
short one, not very scientific, hut for practical pur¬ 
poses it will answer. Raise plenty of corn, peas, 
pumpkins, turnips, peaches (the best and cheapest 
summer food), and have a grass lot or two, with 
shade trees and water in it, for your hogs to run in. 
And lastly, if they run out in the mast, keep them 
well counted. 
But “ our negroes kill off the pigs, as fast as 
they appear.” Well, ours don’t. And if you will 
give yours as much meat as they can eat three 
times a day, I’ll go their security that they will not 
either. 
As to “ negro clothing,” I will just remark, I 
have written in times past and published in Missis¬ 
sippi, not less I suppose than fifty newspaper arti¬ 
cles in favor of making bagging, blankets (com¬ 
forters), and negro clothing at home. But it is in¬ 
novation, and therefore wrong. Though I do not 
recollect to have seen an adverse argument at¬ 
tempted. 
“ I should like to know what is the best method 
of taking care of stock, which have to depend on 
what nature provides for them.” 
As to this matter, I would ask what kind of 
stock ? Horses do very well with corn, oats, hay, 
pumpkins, and sweet potatoes. Let them he well 
stabled, and run in pasture occasionally. Cattle 
should run in a winter pasture adjacent to the 
pumpkin field, so they can be fed along the fence 
with pumpkins, hauled and thrown over. Use tur¬ 
nips in the same way. Let them run in the pea 
field, a day or two at a time, in dry weather, so that 
they will not injure the land by tramping upon it. 
Pea vines and sw T eet potatOe vines, saved like hay, 
make good winter food. Let'sheep run in the pea 
field and grass lots. So much for your correspon¬ 
dent ■ now let me see you, Mr. Allen, and set you 
straight on a point or two. 
“ Apples, pears, cherries, peaches, &c., we believe 
do not well succeed in the latter,” the Mississippi 
bottoms. You never made a greater mistake. 
There is not the least difference between the bottom 
and hill land, with regard to apples, peaches, and 
cherries, except the bottom is generally the richest. 
The two former succeed well, very well indeed. 
And as to peaches, the best, decidedly the best 
place in the United States to raise peaches, is the 
alluvial land of the Mississippi, and Yazoo. The 
next best place in the United States for peaches, is 
the hill country of Mississippi and Louisiana. 
As to the “ &c.,” I suppose you will allow me to 
understand you to mean quinces, plums, apricots, 
