148 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
When the provender is thoroughly mixed in the tub, previously weighing 
out each ingredient, the mixture should be given in small quantities at a time, 
many times in a day; and at night, enough is thrown into the tunnel to last 
till morning. This process will be found of very little trouble to the groom, 
who will only have to go into the loft six or eight times a day. As the com¬ 
ponent parts of the provender are weighed separately for each horses, we are 
certain lie has his just proportion; and I have hereunto annexed my scale of 
feeding in four classes, for it sometimes happens that some of the ingredients 
cannot be procured, and at other times that it may be better to substituteothers; 
but, whatever grain is given, it should always be bruised, or coarsely ground, 
and carefully weighed out; for by weight alone, is it possible to judge of the 
quantity of farinaceous substances, the horse consumes; it being well known 
that a peck of oats varies from seven to twelve pounds; consequently if the 
pr ivender were mixed by measure, there would be frequently an uncertainty, 
as to quantity. Wheat varies from sixteen to twelve; barley from thirteen to 
sixteen; peas from seventeen to fifteen; beans* from seventeen to fifteen per 
peck. And as wheat, beans, peas, barley, and oats, are equally good, and of 
very trifling difference in price when their specific gravity is taken into consi¬ 
deration, I am equally indifferent which grain I use, but I should always pre¬ 
fer boiled or steamed potatoes for hard working horses, to be a component in¬ 
gredient, whenever they can be procured. 
As I call all ground or bruised grain of whatever description, farina, it will 
be so distinguished in the following 
SCALE. 
Farina, consisting of bruised or ground 
Class 1. 
Class 2. 
Class 3. 
Class 4. 
peas, wheat, barley, or oats,. 
5 lbs. 
5 lbs. 
10 lbs. 
5 lbs. 
Bran, fine or coarse pollard,. 
Boiled or steamed potatoes, mashed in a 
— 
— 
— 
7 lbs. 
tub with a wooden bruiser,. 
5 lbs. 
5 lbs. 
_ 
_ 
Fresh grain,... 
6 lbs. 
_ 
_ 
_ 
Hay cut into chaff,. 
7 lbs. 
8 lbs. 
10 lbs. 
8 lbs. 
Straw, &.c., in chaff,. 
7 lbs. 
10 lbs. 
10 lbs. 
8 lbs. 
Malt dust, or ground oil cake,.. 
— 
2 lbs. 
— 
2 lbs. 
Salt,. 
2 oz. 
2 oz. 
2 oz. 
2 oz. 
By the above scale it will be seen, that each horse has his thirty pounds of 
provender, in twenty-four hours, which, I maintain, is full as much as he can 
eat. The two ounces of salt will be found to be an excellent stimulus to the 
horse’s stomach, and should, on no account, be omitted. When a horse re¬ 
turns from labor, perhaps the groom will see the propriety of feeding him from 
his tub more largely, in order that he may be the sooner satified and lie down 
to rest. 
Whenever oat straw can be procured, it is generally preferred; and some like 
to have it cut into chaff without threshing out the oats; but this is a bad plan, 
for in preparing a quantity ol this chaff, unequal proportions of oats will be 
found in each lot, so that one horse will have too large a portion, whilst others 
have less than they ought, although the portions are accurately weighed. 
The only certain method, then, is, to let the grain, of whatever description, 
be weighed separately from its straw, and the keeper of cattle will soon satisfy 
himself that his cattle are in w ant of nothing in the feeding line. Many peo¬ 
ple object to potatoes, and think them unfit for working horses, but, from ma¬ 
ny years’ experience, I am enabled to recoinn.end them as a constituent part 
of the thirty pounds, and am convinced, that it is as wholesome and nutritious 
a food, as can be procured for laboring horses, which are called upon sudden 
emergencies, to perform great tasks, as has been abundantly proved by Mr. 
Curwen, M. P., who kept above one hundred horses on potatoes and straw, 
and always found that their labors were conducted better on this than any 
other food.—See Curwen’s Agricultural Hints, published 1809. 
MAKING PORK. 
The business of fattening pork for sale is practised to some extent by most 
of our farmers, and when performed economically, or when the most is made 
of the materials given them, it is undoubtedly a source of handsome profit. 
Yet all will admit, that when carried on in the manner it sometimes is, the 
process of pork making drains, instead of replenishing, the farmer’s pocket. 
To make fattening hogs profitable, it is necessary, first of all, that the breed 
selected for feeding should be a good one. There is a vast difference in hogs 
in the respect of easy fattening, proper proportion of bone, weight, &c., and 
the farmer who thinks to make money by feeding the long snouted, hump¬ 
backed, slab-sided animals, that are too frequently found among farmers, and 
disgrace the very name of swine, will find in the end that he has reckoned 
without his host, and has thrown away both time and money. 
There are several good breeds of pigs now in the country, mostly produced 
by crossings of other kinds with the Chinese, and of course having different 
degrees of aptitude to fatten; and these breeds have been so disseminated over 
the country, that any f irmer who is willing to make the effort, may have some 
improved animals in his pens. The time has gone by when a hog should be 
kept four years to weigh four hundred, the business of fattening is little un¬ 
derstood where hogs of a year and a half do not reach that amount, and some 
pigs have even exceeded that weight. 
Next to selecting good breeds, it is requisite that they should be kept con¬ 
stantly growing. There must be some foundation for fattening, when the pro¬ 
cess commences, or much time will be lost in repairing errors, and much food 
consumed in making carcass that should he employed in covering it with fat. 
Hogs should be kept in clover pasture, a field being allotted to them for their 
exclusive use, so large in proportion to their numbers that the feed may always 
be fresh, yet not so much so as to run up to seed, or grow coarse or rank. 
They should have the slops of the kitchen, the whey or buttermilk of the dai¬ 
ry, unless this is required for young pigs, and in general every thing they will 
eat to advantage, or which will promote their growth. _ 
* The English horse bean is probably here meant.—E d. 
The manner in which the materials intended for fattening pork is prepared 
and fed, has a decided influence on the rapidity of the process, and of conse¬ 
quence on the aggregate profits. If given out raw much of the value of the ar¬ 
ticle is lost; grain is much improved by grinding, but the full effect of all kinds 
of feed is only brought out by cooking. Corn is without a peradventure the 
best article ever producedr fo making good pork; and though other substances 
good may occasionally be used with advantage, and may produce pork ofl’air and 
quality, yet experience has proved that the real corn fed meat is on the whole 
superior to all others. Hogs will fat on corn given to them in any state, yet 
it is far preferable when soaked, ground, steamed or boiled. A farmer of our 
acquaintance, and who is celebrated for the weight of his hogs, and the excel¬ 
lence of his pork, is in the habit of mixing oats w ith his corn before grinding, 
in the proportion of about one-fourth, and thinks that if he had not the oats of 
his own, he should be a gainer in exchanging corn, bushel for bushel, for oats, 
rather than not have them to mix with his swine feed. He thinks they eat 
the mixture better than clear corn meal, are less liable to a surfeit, and of course 
w’ill fat much faster with the oats than without them. Peas have generally 
been ranked next to corn as an article for making good pork, and they are pro¬ 
bably the best substitute that has yet been found, hogs feeding well on them, 
fattening rapidly, and the pork being of good quality. It is almost indispensa¬ 
ble that peas should be ground or soaked previous to feeding. Potatoes are 
more extensively used for fattening hogs than any other of the cultivated roots, 
and are probably the best of the whole for this purpose. Unless they are boil¬ 
ed, however, they are of little value comparatively, hut when cooked they 
will give the hogs a fine start in feeding, and they may then be easily finished 
off with corn or peas. The fattening of hogs on apples may be considered as 
one of the successful innovations of the age, it being certain that this fruit pos¬ 
sesses a value for that purpose which but a few years since was wholly un¬ 
known. The success of this experiment has given a new value to orchards, 
and will probably check their destruction, which in some sections of the coun¬ 
try had already commenced to a considerable extent. The various reports 
from gentlemen of intelligence of the practical results of apple feeding are most 
gratifying, and we have no doubt the system will be fully approved wherever 
fairly tested. Where convenient, let the hogs lie in the orchard from the 
time the fruit begins to fall, till it is time to gather apples for winter or cider, 
and they will in most cases be found respectable pork. When it is necessary 
to put them in the pen, boiled apples mixed with a small quantity of corn, oats, 
peas, or buckwheat meal, will fill them up rapidly, make them lard well, and 
fill the farmers’ barrels with sound, sweet pork, of the first quality. If any, 
however, are doubtful, they can easily finish off their apple fed pork, as is ge¬ 
nerally done with potatoe fed, with corn or peas, and with'similar results — 
Gen. Far. G. 
BEET SUGAR. 
Extract from a fie of the “ Journal des Debals , 1 5 l h April, 1836,” at the rooms 
of the Young Men’s Association, in this city. 
Four residents of the village of Wallers, department of the north, one a 
blacksmith and the others farmers, formed, some months since, an association 
for manufacturing beet root sugar, with a capital of 400 fr.* in four equal shares 
of 50 francs a piece. These enterprising men obtained the most happy results. 
They wore able, every day, to make a loaf of sugar of medium quality, weigh¬ 
ing from forty to fifty pounds. The following is their simple mode of manu¬ 
facturing the sugar. They used curry combs ! ! to rasp the beet roots with, 
and linen bags for expressing the juice, the syrup thus obtained was boiled in 
the family iron pot, on the blacksmith’s fire. By these simple means they 
were able to make a loaf every day. 
More lately still, Messrs. Rapez and Lecerf, of Onnaing, have also manufac¬ 
tured beet sugar on a small scale. The sugar of Mr. Lecerf particularly is, in 
the opinion of a sugar refiner in Paris, of a quality that he would pay for at the 
rate of from 57 to 58 francs the 50 kilogrammes. Monsieur Lefitte, deputy from 
Seine and Oise, and one of the most zealous propagators of agricultural im¬ 
provements, is on the point of establishing some “ sucreries ” on his farm, 
at Auvernean. Should, thanks to the endeavors of the Royal Agricultural So¬ 
ciety, the process of making beet sugar become popular in France, we shali 
soon see the day when every family will make its sugar, as it now does its 
preserves. 
THE SHEEP .—(Continued from page 118.) 
THE SOUTH-DOWN SHEEP. 
The next is the hill sheep, adapted to more elevated situations and shorter 
i feed on the natural and permanent pastures; able also to travel, without detri¬ 
ment., a considerable distance to the fold and to the down. There can be no 
hesitation in fixing on the South-Down as the model here. 
The following is the substance of the description of this sheep by Mr. Ell- 
man, who. if he may not be considered, like Mr. Bakewell w ith regard to the 
I.eicesters, as founder of the breed, yet contributed more than any other man 
to its present improvement and value. 
The head small and hornless; the (ace speckled or grey, and neither too long 
nor too short. The lips thin, and thff space between the nose and ihe eyes 
narrow. The under jaw, or chap, fine and thin; the ears tolerably wide, and 
well covered with wool, and the forehead also, and the whole space between 
the ears well protected by it, as a defence against the fly. 
The eye full and bright, but not prominent. The orbits of the eye—the 
eye-cap, or bone,—not too projecting, that it may not form a fatal obstacle in 
lambing. 
The neck of a medium length, thin towards the head, but enlarging towards 
the shoulders where it should be broad and high, ami straight in its whole 
course nbove and below'. The breast should be wide, deep, and projecting 
forwards between the fore legs, indicating a good constilulion, and a disposi 
tion to thrive. Corresponding with this, the shoulders should be on aleve 
* Valuing the franc at 18J cents, this would amount to $75. 
