272 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Sept, 
NORFOLK TKOTTER-Fig. 59. 
vuAie, should be bred with strict care, and sufficiently 
by themselves to insure uniformity of character. It 
beinsr the constant endeavor to breed them as much as 
possible to one standard or model, no blood should be 
admitted which would be likely to cause a deviation 
lrom it. This course should be pursued for many 
years, until the peculiar qualities of the stock become 
so fixed in the blood that they will be transmitted with 
a good degree of certainty. 
The formation of clubs, in different neighborhoods, 
for the improvement of the breed of horses, might be pro¬ 
ductive of great advantage. It should be an object 
with such clubs to secure the best mares, which should 
be bred to the most valuable horses. The rules of the 
clubs should be as few and as simple as possible. The 
mares may be owned separately, by individuals com¬ 
posing the club,' but they should all be such as th« 
club, or a committee appointed by it, should approve. 
The stallions should be owned by the clubs. They 
should be selected by individuals appointed by the club. 
The club should have the sole direction in regard to 
their use; they should be kept at joint expense, and 
the proceeds arising from their services, should be 
divided in an equitable ratio among the members. 
This business may undoubtedly be made profitable. 
The clubs, if properly conducted, would soon establish 
a favorable reputation. They should offer none but 
the very best stock, and such would be certain to meet 
with a ready sale at remunerating prices. In my next. 
I shall speak more particularly in regard to the proper 
rules of breeding, rearing, and management. 
Eq.uus. 
REARING AND FATTENING HOGS. 
A correspondent in Albemarle county, Va., writes,— 
“ Will you give me specific directions for rearing and 
fattening fifty hogs ? That is to say, will you tell me 
if I ought to keep them confined the year round, or for 
what length of time and what quantity of different ma¬ 
terials should be planted for their food, and at what 
times, in this climate ?” 
Our acquaintance with all the circumstances having a 
bearing on the subject, is not such as enable us to fur¬ 
nish “ specific directions.” If he rears his hogs from 
the u start,” we should think it weuld be best to have 
the pigs farrowed at a time when the sows could be 
turned on clover, and it would be well if they could 
have a smell range on clover or grass for a week 
or two before farrowing. We would allow them to 
run here together till the pigs were five or six weeks old, 
giving the sows such dairy slops as the farm afforded. 
If there were no skimmed milk or whey for them, we 
would feed with slops, made of corn-meal and shorts, 
in equal parts, scalded and allowed to ferment slightly , 
—not to become sour. After the pigs are a week old, 
the sows may be allowed as much as they will eat, but 
none should be left in thp trough from one meal to 
another. If milk can be had for the young pigs, at the 
rate of a quart each, per day, they may as well be 
taken from the sows at five weeks old; but if no milk 
can be given, it is advisable to keep them on the sows 
till seven or eight weeks old—feeding the sows well 
during that time. If pigs are taken off too young, and 
have not. milk given them, they are likely to become 
pot-bellied, and crooked-backed, owing to their diges¬ 
tive organs not having acquired sufficient strength to 
bear the food which they are obliged to eat. Their 
constitutions are frequently so much injured in this 
way, and their shape so much distorted that they never 
recover, and never become what they might have been 
had they received proper treatment. It should, there¬ 
fore, be made a rule, to allow pigs the milk of their 
dams, or milk from cows, till they have reached such 
an age that they can thrive on other food. The great 
object should be to keep them constantly growing. 
They should not be full fed and made fat at one time, 
and starved and made poor at another. The farmer 
should remember that the loss of a pound of pork 
wasted from the carcase of a live hog, is just as much 
of a dead loss, as though it had been lost from his pork- 
barrel or smoke house. Hence his swine should never 
grow poor, but should gain something every day, 
though it may be expedient to have them gain faster 
at some periods than at others. 
When pigs are first taken from the sows, it is f 
great assistance to their growth, to have their fowl 
