1817. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
271 
cooked. Raw Indian corn or raw corn meal, is not 
easily digested, and it has a great tendency to sour on 
the stomach, and to induce dyspepsia. These objec¬ 
tions are in a great degree obviated by making the 
meal into good stiff mush—-(Yankee hasty-pudding) — 
mixing with the Indian meal a third part shorts or 
oatmeal, and adding about the same quantity of salt 
as is applied to mush made for table use. Should the 
food, after having been duly prepared, produce in the 
pigs a tendency to scour, charcoal should be allowed 
them; it will, indeed, be advisable to allow them 
plenty of this substance at all times, as it promotes 
their health and thrift. 
In separating the sows and pigs, it is better to let 
the pigs remain in the lot where Lhey have been kept, 
if the feed is good enough, as they will be more quiet 
than if taken to a strange place. Dry and comfortable 
shelter at all times, with cool shade in summer, should 
be provided. 
The pigs may run on the clover till frost puts a stop to 
its growth. They should then be put in a warm pen 
with a small yard attached, and well supplied with 
straw or leaves. If it is intended to kill them in the 
fall, or in the course of the winter, it will be important 
that they are always fed about as much as they will 
bear, otherwise they will be lacking in size. If they 
can be brought to the dressed weight of about two 
hundred pounds at eight months old, (as they frequent¬ 
ly are at the north,)it is generally more profitable to 
kill them at that age than to winter them over and 
kill them the ne^ct season; but unless they have the 
benefit of some dairy slops, they will require close at¬ 
tention to make them reach these weights. If the far¬ 
mer decides to keep them till they are eighteen to 
twenty months old, they may be fed through the win¬ 
ter something in proportion to the quantity of food at 
his disposal. They should at all events have enough 
to keep up their condition, and if the food is on hand, 
it may be fed as profitably now as at any time; but if 
they are made too fat, it may in a degree disqualify 
them from grazing the next season. With hogs which 
are inclined to grow fast, there is not, however, much 
danger of this—the increase in weight being rather 
muscle than fat. 
The second season they may be turned on clover, as 
before, and be fed moderately through the hottest part 
of the season. As the weather becomes cool in 
autumn, the feed should be increased, and by the last 
of September it will probably be best to take them 
from the fields and put them in the fattening pens. 
These should be so constructed that the hogs may be 
readily kept clean and comfortable. They should have 
an apartment to sleep in, another to feed in, and a 
third in which to void their dung and urine. Quietude 
favors the secretion of fat; therefore whatever pro¬ 
motes the animal’s comfort, is equivalent to food. 
They should be fed at regular intervals, with as much 
as they will eat. 
A.s to the kind of food, much must depend on cir¬ 
cumstances. In Virginia, we presume, Indian corn 
will most advantageously form the leading article. In 
general, it should be ground, though with the light 
“gourd-seed” variety, there is less advantage in 
grinding than with the more flinty sorts, as it is more 
easily and thoroughly masticated and more perfectly 
digested. A hog, however, can extract the nutriment 
from a small daily allowance of hard corn; but if full 
fed he cannot thoroughly digest it, and more or less 
nutriment is wasted. If the farmer is not within a 
convenient distance of a mill, it will be expedient for 
him to set up a small one, to be worked by horse¬ 
power. One of Fitzgerald’s mills may be had for 
$60 or $70, (according as they are geared,) or one of 
Howard’s at $35. With the power of two horses, 
they will work up from three to twelve bushels, of any 
kind of grain an hour, according to the fineness re¬ 
quired. One of Pitts’ corn and cob cutters, which 
chops up grain to about what is called “ coarse feed,” 
can be had for $40, and with a two horse-power, will 
readily grind ten to twelve bushels an hour. 
The expediency of cooking, too, will depend some¬ 
thing on the situation in which the farmer is placed as 
to the facilities for doing it—such as the value oflabor, 
fuel, and the cost of preparing proper apparatus. We 
believe it has been demonstrated, however, that a gain 
more than sufficient to pay the cost, is generally real¬ 
ized by cooking. Mott’s furnaces, described in our last 
No., are the best articles for cooking we have seen. 
There is an advantage in using a variety of food. 
A proportion of apples, potatoes, or pumpkins, keeps 
up the appetite, and makes the animals thrive faster 
than oh corn or meal alone. If the food is cooked, it 
is best to mix these various articles together, chang¬ 
ing and varying the articles from time to time, in or¬ 
der to promote the appetite 
As to the “ quantity of different materials that should 
be planted for the food of fifty hogs, and at what 
times,” we cannot answer, for the reason that we can¬ 
not tell what the yield of the crops would probably be, 
nor what would be the proper time of planting in the 
latitude referred to. 
We are in possession of no definite rule in regard to 
the quantity of food which hogs require. Some per¬ 
sons allow two quarts of corn daily to each hog of 200 
lbs. live weight; and according to some experiments 
made in Essex county, Mass., a bushel of corn may be 
expected to make twelve pounds of pork. (See an arti¬ 
cle in our last under head of “ How much pork will a 
bushel of corn make.”) But a fixed rule in the case is 
out of the question. 
In the above remarks we have had regard more par¬ 
ticularly to the interior of the country. In situations 
where manure is very valuable, it may not be an ob¬ 
ject to turn the hogs on grass or clover, but may be 
better to keep them shut up in order to make compost. 
Editors of Cultivator —The humane and benevo¬ 
lent expression of Sterne, to a fly, “ Begone, poor 
thing, there is room enough for thee and me in the 
world,” is far exceeded by the tender humanity dis¬ 
played in the following little article from the Ken- 
nebeck Gazette. It possesses a peculiar strain of re¬ 
fined sensibility and natural pathos, which render it 
highly deserving of preservation in your valuable pub 
lication. ‘ A. of the North. 
SONNET TO A FLY. 
Son of summer—child of leisure, 
Buzz not thus around my form ; 
Little gilded speck of pleasure, 
Tease me not, for I am warm. 
It would grieve me sore to wound thee, 
Pain my heart to do thee harm; 
Keep not huzzing then around me, 
Tease me not, for I am warm. 
Go and play around the ceiling, 
Safe from every in ware storm ; 
Go and trust an honest feeling, 
None will come to do thee harm, 
Little son of summer, go, 
Prithee do not tease me so. 
Chalybeate Springs, are so named from holding 
iron in solution. It is believed that the brown sedi¬ 
ment which may be sometimes observed in pools and 
shallow water-courses, is occasioned by the cast-off' 
skins of minute animalculae, (infusioria,) the principal 
constituent of which is iron. These creatures are in¬ 
visible to the naked eye, but are readily discovered by 
the microscope. It is said that such exuviahave accu¬ 
mulated in some districts in such masses as to form 
immense beds of ore. 
