1884 
PRIZE ESSAY.— Class V. 
SWINE.—THE BEST BREEDS, AND HOW TO 
CARE FOR THEM. 
ROBT. J. YOUNG. 
The Poland-China is undoubtedly the best 
breed of swine for the West. 1. Tt. is uot so 
liable to disease as the white breeds, aud this 
point, is of great importance. 3. It is naturally 
of a very quiet disposition. 3 It is a good 
breeder, very kind to its young, and quite 
easy to handle. 4. It will fatten at an early 
age. and at the same time continue to grow 
till two years of age. 5. Tt will thrive better 
on clover and grass than any other breed. 
How to breed pigs so as to secure the great 
est, return in value for the footl consumed, is a 
problem that many have tried to solve, and 
in the solution of which the profit lies. 
Breeding and feeding are so closely allied to 
each other, that due consideration can scarce¬ 
ly be given to one without including the other; 
but we will first notice the breeding. 
Sows should be bred in December, so that 
the pigs will be produced in April. The pen 
should be built in a sheltered place, where the 
pigs can get the benefit of the sunshine for the 
greater part of the day. The bedding should 
consist of fresh oak leaves, as they are not 
so liahle to pack down hard, or to accumulate 
moisture as straw. A few loads can lie 
gathered in Autumn and stored in the baru, 
or stacked and covered with straw. If straw 
must be used, I prefer wheat. The sides of 
the pen should be white washed, and salt 
and ashes should be kept in a box iD oue comer 
of the pen. The sow should be removed from 
the herd at least ten days before the farrow¬ 
ing, that she may become reconciled to her 
new home. Her food should consist of boiled 
com, bran and shorts. She should have all 
the swill she wants, if it can be procured. 
Insist ou every one keeping quiet about tne 
breeding pens, and the same person should 
take care of her for a lew days. Too much 
attention sometimes worries the sow, and 
tends to make her cross. 
Sows sometimes destroy their pigs, which is 
caused by costivoness, which amounts at times 
to frenzy. To avoid this, give the sow free 
access to wood ashes, charcoal and salt. 
Place feed where the pigs can have access to 
it, and they will learn to eat in a short time; 
and as they grow, the little gormands will re¬ 
quire more food in the form of boiled corn, 
bran and shorts, mixed with swill. They 
should be allowed to run in and out of the pen 
at will. When the pigs are about one month 
old, the sow should be turned out to gra&s, 
aud fed liberally twice a day, as this will keep 
up the flow of milk, so essential to the welfare 
of the pigs. Provide a pen In the pasture, 
with openings just largo enough for the pigs, 
and give them all the swill, skim-milk, bran 
and shorts they will eat, and you will be sur¬ 
prised at the result; when the pigs are about 
three months old the sow will wean them of 
her own accord, which is the best course. The 
sow will theu have a chance to build up her 
wasted system, and should not be bred again 
before December. A sow cau be crowded to 
have three litters per year, but it is destruc¬ 
tive to her constitution, and the pigs will 
amount to but little. Oue extra fine litter is 
worth far more than two or three poor ones. 
Next, as to care and feeding:—I let my 
pigs run in the clover fields till harvest. When 
the graiu is stacked they have free access to 
the stubble fields. The grain they pick up in 
addition to the clover gives them a good start. 
When the clover begins to fail, I commence 
feeding new corn. This I continue through 
the Winter, the whole herd of from 75 to 100 
running together. A clear brook runs through 
the pasture, and if they wish to wallow in the 
water L do not try to prevent them. In fact, 
this is just what they need in hot weather; it 
cools them and cleanses the skin. In the ab¬ 
sence of the 9tream, I would provide vats 
about eight inches deep, and keep a good sup¬ 
ply of water in them at all times. The vats 
should be constructed so that they could 
be easily cleaned, and this should be clone 
at least once a week. Those pigs which are 
to be fattened the first Winter should be sep 
arated from the store pigs, aud put in a roomy 
pen, with a floor of two inch plank laid so that 
one side is higher than the other, one being 
Shout eight inches from the ground and the 
other about 12 inches; this will give the air a 
chance to get under the floor, and the urine 
will have a chance to run off. The pen must 
be kept clean if the pigs are to thrive. I feed 
five or six times per day, as the pigs will get 
up and eat every time fresh corn is thrown 
into the pen. In a short time I learn just how 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
SOI 
much they will eat, and I never over-feed. 
1 The plan called “hogging-off”—turning the 
hogs into the field to help themselves—prac¬ 
ticed by so many Western farmers, I do not 
like. I admit that it saves time, and the hogs 
will do well; but what they waste will cer¬ 
tainly more than pay for the extra labor of 
picking and feeding. 
The Poland-China pigs will, with good 
care, weigh from 250 to 300 pounds when 10 
months old; but, as I like to sell large 
hogs, I feed, as a general thing, moder¬ 
ately through the first Winter, let the 
pigs run on the clover the next. Summer, and 
commence feeding in September. By this 
method my favorites will weigh from 400 to 
700 pounds by the first, of January. The lar¬ 
gest hog of this breed I ever saw was exhibited 
at the fair held at St Joseph (this State), in 
1875. This monster weighed 1,400 pounds. H. 
C. Stahl, of Beatrice, Nebraska, exhibited his 
famous boar. Prince Bismarck, at our fair 
last Fall, and although he did not carry off 
the “blue ribbon,” he tipped the beam at 025 
pounds, being three years old. I merely men¬ 
tion these pigs to prove the superiority of the 
Poland China. My nearest neighbor, Mr. Jo¬ 
seph Elder, butchered 10 head of pigs Decem¬ 
ber 11, 1883. that averaged 365 pounds not. 
These were three-quarter bloods; aud were far¬ 
rowed April5 and 7, making them about eight 
months old. 
DISEASES. 
For cholera I would give the following:— 
One bushel of charcoal, powdered; three bush¬ 
els of wood ashes; half a bushel of salt; two 
pounds of Spanish hrown; five pounds of sul¬ 
phur; one fourth pound of saltpeter; one half 
pound of copperas [In what doses t —Eds.] 
For worms, mix wood ashes with soap-suds 
aud feed once a week with their swill. 
Mange is caused by filth, aud hy sleeping in 
an old, rotten straw pile, or in a wet, filthy 
bed. Harris says the disease is caused by a 
minute insect which burrows under the skin; 
but filth undoubtedly breeds the insect. Cure: 
wash the pigs with strong soap-suds; wipe 
them dry, and grease them with coal-oil and 
lard, equal parts; keep t he pigs clean, and you 
will not have this disease to contend with. 
The symptoms of quinsy are: swelling under 
the jowls, difficulty of breathing and swal¬ 
lowing. Cure: bathe the neck uud jowls with 
coal oil, and bleed with a penknife under the 
tongue. 
For lice: wash the pig in sour butter-milk, 
and a cure is certain. [An application of Lit¬ 
tle's Rheep Dip is also effectual.— Edh.I 
For kidney worms the symptoms are: weak¬ 
ness iu the loins, and a difficulty in using the 
hind parts. Cure: bathe the loins freely with 
warm vinegar, salt and turpentine, two or 
three times. Feed two or throe tablespoonfuls 
of the mixture iu swill for four or five days. 
Buchanan Co., Mo. 
-♦ » » - - 
PRIZE ESSAY.— Class II. 
SHORT, PITHY PARAGRAPHS. 
[The writer’s name does not appear.— Eds. | 
Keep out of debt. 
Have a clean, dry cellar. 
Don’t waste the morning hours. 
Keep accurate accounts of your dealings. 
Industry, economy and common sense are 
the best capital. 
Exchange "scrubs” for thoroughbred or 
high-grade stock. 
Don’t be gulled by sharpers. When you 
need an article, buy it of a reliable dealer. 
Neatness pays. Keep your stock curried, 
stables cleaned, rubbish picked up, and road¬ 
sides and mowing fields free from bushes and 
weeds. 
Give your tenderest care to the best pro¬ 
ducts of your farm—your sens and daugh¬ 
ters. 
Paint your buildings, vehicles and tools. 
Shelter your vehicles and tools when uot in 
use. 
Remember that good fences make orderly 
stock. 
Keep the manure sheltered until you use it, 
Do uot let your insurance nm out. 
Let your wife bo the queen of your home, 
and make that home an earthly Eden. 
Do not allow the use of any kind of intoxi¬ 
cating drink on your farm. 
Keep a year’s supply of fuel ahead. 
Thin out your woods where they need it. 
Cut out the fallen and dead trees for fuel. 
Obey the golden rule and thus save lawyer’s 
fees. 
Fit your mowing lands for machines. 
Educate your children as liberally as your 
means will permit. 
Have warm, yet well-ventilated stables. 
Don’t scrimp your sheep so that they will 
follow a load of good bay out of town. 
If you don’t love farming, quit it. 
Seek counsel and help of God. 
Make Sunday a day of rest. 
Don’t try to make a farmer of a boy who 
has no fitness for it. 
Read the best agricultural books and papers. 
Study carefully the market reports of ar¬ 
ticles which you must buy or sell. 
Get all the benefit possible from the Grange 
or farmers’ club. 
Be as attentive to your wife as when you 
courted her. 
On storm}’ days mend the tools, oil the har¬ 
ness, pick out the decayed fruits and vege¬ 
tables in the cellar, read, write, visit the 
school, and do the tbousand-and-one things 
which can be done as well on stormy as on 
pleasant days. 
Don’t oblige sheep to eat snow and melt 
their own drink. 
Fatten the old cow. 
Don’t feed your colts the leavings from the 
sheep-rack, with the stable partition plank for 
dessert. 
Give the boys ground tocultivate, and then, 
don’t you pocket the profits. 
Know what each crop costs and what it 
brings, and discard the unprofitable ones. 
Provide plenty of good bedding, but don’t 
use ripe weeds for bedding, and so seed your 
land through thomamire. 
Have a well-stocked ice house. 
Salt your stock weekly. 
It costs loss to keep a fat team than a lean 
one. 
Re open the ditches in the swamp. 
Clean out the springs and wells. 
Dou't let your wife make the vegetable gar¬ 
den. 
Cleanliness is the biggest half of good but- 
tor-making. 
Plant only so much land as you can keep 
free from weeds. 
Buy something helpful for your wife, or 
which will beautify your home. 
Don’t work your hired men until eight 
o’clock at night. 
Instead of buying more land, take better 
care of what you have. 
Plan your work wisely. It would be as fool¬ 
ish for a mechanic to try to build a house at 
random as for a farmer to have no plan for 
his year’s work. 
Don’t employ vicious workmen. 
Don’t be a hermit. The farmer ought to be 
the most sociable of men. 
Make your home both comfortable and at¬ 
tractive. 
Keep water running to house and barn. 
Use only the best varieties of seed. 
Keep an account, with your farm, charging 
it with every dollar spent for it, and crediting 
it with every dollar received from it. You 
will thus know how much profit you have 
realized from it. 
Take an intelligent interest iu politics. 
Be ready to adopt any new invention which 
you are sure will benefit you, but don’t waste 
money ou more novelties. 
Provide plenty of roots for your stock. 
Don’t keep swine which need knots tied in 
their tails to keep them from escaping through 
the cracks in their pens. 
Keep your tools sharp. 
Don’t neglect the grafting and pruning. 
Remember that kindness pays, whether 
exercised toward your stock, hired help, fam¬ 
ily, or acquaintances. 
Don’t he wasteful. 
Don’t smoke or chow tobacco, or be guilty of 
any practice which you do not wish repro¬ 
duced in your children. 
Finally, let the precepts of the Bible tie the 
guide of your life. 
Here and there throughout the country, but 
especially in large cities, are men who make 
it their only or principal business to collect 
names of all sorts and classes of people in all 
parts of the country, for the purpose of selling 
them to advertisers who wish to appeal di¬ 
rectly to the people through the mails or by 
express. The names are generally classified, 
and those of persons afflicted with chronic 
diseases, and habitual invalids, fetch the high 
est price per thousand next to those of the 
dupes of swindlers and sharpers. It is found 
that both of these classes, in spite of repeated 
disappointments aud losses, can be induced 
again and again to invest their money in 
worthless or even pernicious nostrums, or in 
goods which are either given away gratis , or 
sold so cheap as to cause a loss to the sellers! 
Both kinds of gudgeons are caught over and 
over again by hooks alluringly baited with 
generous offers from perfect strangers; pro¬ 
testations of honesty and sincerity from man¬ 
ifest frauds and rascals, or advertisements 
paid for by those who must incur a loss if 
the goods they offer for Rale are taken at the 
prices they mention: these intentionally pay 
beforehand for an opportunity of losing their 
money! Of course, the “dealers in names” 
sell the same names over and over again to 
different applicants, some of whom pay for 
the entire list, while others take only the 
names of the class to which they intend to 
appeal. When any of our friends, there¬ 
fore, get a nicely worded circular or adver¬ 
tisement through the mails, or a sample of 
some bait through the express, he may feel 
pretty certain that his name and address were 
sold to the advertiser by some “dealer in 
names;” aud if he belongs to either of the 
above classes, he may rest, assured that an ex¬ 
tra price was paid for the Information on ac¬ 
count of the extra good chance that tie would 
prove a gullible dupe or an unscrpulous rascal. 
A specimen of a medical quack advertising 
through the mails. Is “ Dr.” Root, of this city, 
who is sending out. by express bottles of his 
“ Remedy for Fits, Epilepsy or Falling Sick¬ 
ness,” together with his “valuable treatise ou 
the subject.” “ Thu Remedy,” he claims, 
“ will drive the malady from the system, 
which, when once righted, will of itself resist 
the return of the disease.” Anybody who 
knows anything about the nature of the dis¬ 
ease, will at once recognize tills sort, of talk 
as the “patter” of a charlatan. The causes 
of epilepsy are numerous, and in treating the 
disease the first, thing to he done is to find out 
the cause, and try to got rid of it. if it still 
exists. Very often the disease depends on 
some external cause of irritation, which may 
be easily removed; but not by taking any 
number of bottles of auy sortof nostrum. No 
one but a quack would venture the opinion 
that a disease which may be due to any oue 
of several causes, which appears in many dif¬ 
ferent forms,and in which successful treatment 
depends ou a thorough knowledge of all the 
circumstances of each case, can be “cured” 
in all instances by a nostrum put up without 
any acquaintance with the patient or knowl¬ 
edge of his condition or of the predisposing or 
immediate causes of the disease. 
Au example of the sharpers who hope that 
those to whom t hey write will prove to be dis¬ 
honest rascals, is a fellow who is sending out 
from this city "confidential” circulars over 
the name of J. Burt. He is one of the “saw 
dust swindlers"—the rascals who offer coun¬ 
terfeit. money for sale, and whose methods 
have already been exposed at, lougth in this 
department. This merely adds a new name 
to the list of such rogues; but Burt, which is 
doubtless au alios, may be the alias of Bell, 
Elias, or any of the other scoundrels who have 
lately been trying to swindle the public in 
the same way. 
The South is being flooded by one Vasbur- 
ger, of Mexico, Fa., with circulars setting 
forth the amazing good qualities of Swedish 
Clover, saying, among other things, that it is 
much better than Red Glover, growing abun¬ 
dantly on the sandy barrens and the poorest 
soil; that on soil unfit for any other crop it 
furnishes an abundance of pasturage and sup¬ 
plies a. heavy green crop for turning under to 
improve the land; that it springs up quickly 
when pastured down, and that, no drought is 
so severe as to affect it. Now this would all 
be very nice, if true; but there is not a word 
of the whole circular true, and if Mr. Vashur- 
ger knows this to lie the fact, ho is one of the 
most conscienceless swindlers out. Alsike, 
or Swedish Clover, is intermediate between 
Red aud White Clover, grows like the White, 
with ereepiug stems on the surface. It will 
grow on damp lands if heavy and rich, but 
will not grow on lighc, dry, sandy soil. At its 
best, it makes only a very medium crop of 
hay, and has but little value for ouriching 
land, and after being mowed or eaten down 
in the Spring, it starts very slowly, and makes 
very little Fall growth. The seed is on sale 
by all seedsmen at about 15 cents per pound, 
and six pounds seeds an acre. 
In the Rural of June 7 appeared an adver¬ 
tisement of the Lyons Silk Co., of Boston, 
Mass., in which six pieces of silk were offered 
for 85 cents, 12 for 60 cents and 24 for $1. 
Before we admitted the advertisement, wo in¬ 
quired about the concern and were told that 
it was financially sound; the agent who sent 
us the advertisement has an excellent stand¬ 
ing, and told us it was all right; and there was 
nothing fraudulent on the face of the adver¬ 
tisement, as remnants of dry goods are often 
sold very cheap. We find, however, that in¬ 
stead of sending remnants of piece-silk, as the 
advertisement intimated, the cheats sent pieces 
of spool silk silk threads—not worth even a 
tenth part of the low price asked. Such a 
trick is a gross fraud. We notice the same 
advertisement now running in other papers, 
the only difference being in the name and 
address. The Importers’ Silk Co., or this city, 
appears to be au alias of the Boston swindle. 
The Grape vine Raspberry is a humbug 
which is being peddled about in the West by 
agents from an Iowa nursury. It is represent¬ 
ed as something marvelous and cheap at six 
for a dollar. Keep the dollar and get the 
plant in the woods. It is probably the Red- 
flowering Raspberry—Rubus odoratus. 
