14 
THE CULTIVATOR 
corn at a dime a bushel, than to put it into such totally 
Worthless brutes. 
Of the Choice of Stock, Breeding and Rearing. 
The Boar. —After obtaining as many other good 
points as possible in choosing a boar, reference should 
then be had to a strong, masculine appearance in him, 
even at the risk of getting some little coarseness, as this 
denotes great vigor and constitution. Both sexes of the 
improved breeds of swine are, if allowed, precocious in 
breeding. To prevent this, the boar pig must be sepa¬ 
rated from the sows, as soon at least as he has attained 
four months of age, and it is better thenceforward to 
keep him entirely by himself. For this purpose, a close 
covered, roomy pen, with a plank floor, and plenty of lit¬ 
ter is provided for him to feed and sleep in, and retire to 
whenever he pleases, and made comfortably warm in 
winter and cool in summer. This communicates, by a 
door that can be opened and shut at pleasure, with a 
yard for him to root and exercise in, and a strong up¬ 
right post or two to rub and scratch against, and a 
slough hole to cool and refresh himself by wallowing at 
his pleasure during hot weather. If this yard could be 
extended to a good grass pasture, with clear, sweet wat¬ 
er passing through, it would be still better for the boar 
to have a run there, and more conducive to his health, 
vigor and longevity. 
He should never be permitted to be used till seven 
months old at least, and it would be much better that he 
were allowed to run till nine months. But if commenc¬ 
ing at seven months, he should cover sparingly, say not 
more than fifteen to twenty sows, till a year old, and 
these as distant apart as possible, not more than three in 
any single week. From this time, till he has attained 
pretty full vigor, which for the Chinese I should call 
twelve, and the Berkshire at eighteen months age, he 
may be used a little more freely. His spring seasons 
might then vary from twenty to thirty sows, and the fall 
nearly double this number. The sow should be intro¬ 
duced to him when in heat, and allowed but one coitus, 
and then be immediately taken away. It has generally 
been noted, that one covering produces a greater num¬ 
ber, and stronger offspring than two or three, and that an 
ad libitum service is alike pernicious to all parties. 
During his seasons, if pretty freely used, he should be 
kept up, and with care, being fed at least three times a 
day, about, or quite as much as he will eat. The best 
aliment for him then is boiled or soaked corn, with plen¬ 
ty of pure fresh water, and for variety some swill from 
the house, slightly thickened with meal, (oat is the best,) 
and a few raw or boiled vegetable roots. As an anti¬ 
dote to disease, and to give tone to the appetite and as¬ 
sist digestion, a table spoonful of sulphur is occasional¬ 
ly put in his food; salt also is placed where he can get 
at it when he pleases, and charcoal or small chunks of 
rotten wood, together with a handful of crushed bones. 
Between the seasons his feed is made lighter, but suffi¬ 
ciently nutricious to keep him in fair store order, and 
more exercise, and a greater run as above is recom¬ 
mended. A good animal thus treated, may last ten 
years or more, and get excellent stock from first to last. 
I have lately heard of boars having been effective till 
past twenty, and can see no good reason to doubt the 
truth of the communication, as the hog has been known 
both in ancient and modern times, to have frequently at¬ 
tained the age of thirty years. The duration of their 
services, and goodness of their stock, depends mainly 
upon their treatment. Great error is committed in irre¬ 
gularity of feeding, and overtasking their procreative 
powers, and hence the frequent disappointments in dis¬ 
tinguished animals, not producing stock at all equal to 
themselves. 
The Sow. —When growing pigs or shoats, and kept 
up in pens, not more than half a dozen sows ought to 
herd together, yet in large pastures any reasonable num¬ 
ber maybe suffered to associate. But when full grown, 
and especially if of a large size, two at most is sufficient 
together in confinement, and it would be still better that 
each one had an apartment to itself in the piggery.— 
Unless the pig was lean, and the object was to some¬ 
what fine her, it ought not to be allowed to breed, if a 
Chinese, till twelve, and if a Berkshire, till eighteen 
months old; and if something extra large was wanted, 
defer their coming in still six months longer. There is 
then no check in youth, and the first litter of pigs is usu¬ 
ally as fine and as large as any subsequent ones. The 
period of their gestation is sixteen weeks, and the time 
that they are stinted to the boar should be set down, 
and one month at least previous to farrowing, each sow 
should be taken up and occupy a place alone, either in 
pasture or in pen, similar to that described for the boar, 
be kept in good order, and strictly watched when ex¬ 
pected to bring forth. As soon as dropped, see that the 
pigs are cleaned and take the teat, and the dam rid of 
the placenta, and that carried off and buried. She should 
then be supplied with short cut litter in a moderate quan¬ 
tity, so that her young will not get tangled in it and be 
smothered. The watching should continue several days, 
till the pigs are strong and lively, especially if the sow be 
full grown and heavy, otherwise they are in danger of 
being lain and trod upon, and killed. One pig more 
saved than leaving the sow to herself, amply repays all 
this extra attention. 
The sows being somewhat feverish at farrowing, 
should have what water they please to drink abo ut blood 
warm, but very little food, and that of a light kind the 
first twenty-four hours. After this their feed may be 
gradually strengthened, and when the pigs get a week 
old, the dam should be fed all it will eat three times a 
day without cloying. All the whey and milk that can 
be spared, with a mixture of oat and barley with pea or 
Indian meal, of one part of either of the latter to three 
parts of the former, is highly recommended for nursery, 
together with an equal quantity of boiled or steamed ve¬ 
getables. As soon as the pigs will eat, a small open 
box frame should be placed in the pen, under which they 
could run and be separate from the sows, a trough set 
there, and milk with a light mixture of meal and cook¬ 
ed vegetable roots poured out for them. This greatly 
relieves the sow, and adds much to the growth of the 
pigs; they wean then without scouring, losing condi¬ 
tion in the least, or being checked in their growth. 
It is generally thought that pigs do as well to be wean¬ 
ed at six weeks’ old as later, for the little milk that each 
then gets is obtained by more or less quarreling, and 
adds a distaste to their other food; besides it is a great 
consideration to get them off the sow as soon as possi¬ 
ble. Eight or ten great pigs tugging at her breast for 
two or three months, is hard to be borne, and is fre¬ 
quently very pernicious to her teats. In weaning, all 
but one should be taken off, put the dam on short allow¬ 
ance, and in two days take the remaining pig away, al¬ 
lowing it at first to draw the breast twice a day, and. 
then diminish till once in two or three days during a 
week, then turn the sow out to grass and leave off en¬ 
tirely, and commence gradually to put her into condition 
again. The Berkshires especially are great milkers, 
and must be well attended to at weaning time, or the 
breast will fill, become caked and swollen, and finally 
ulcerate, and be the cause sometimes of the death of the 
sow. Two litters are allowed per annum, and a prefe¬ 
rence for farrowing in this climate is given to the months 
of April and September. Farther south, later and ear¬ 
lier will answer. A pig when first dropped is a very 
tender animal, and if the weather be too cold it will pe¬ 
rish ; the dam also is likely to become ravenous and de¬ 
vour her offspring, or refuse to nurse it. 
After being weaned, pigs should be fed upon cooked 
food, at least for a few days; they will then very rarely 
scour, and if they have a dry, warm place to sleep in, 
covered from the weather, will not take cold or be af¬ 
flicted with swollen head and throat, that too often de¬ 
stroys them. Night air is very pernicious to young pigs, 
and is the direct cause of most of the ills that effect them. 
In order to give them an handsome shape and good 
growth, some attention must be had to their food" and 
accommodation. To their snug sleeping apartment in 
the winter, a large dry yard that the sun will shine in 
when out, should be appended for exercise, and in sum¬ 
mer they ought to have the run of a good grass or clo¬ 
ver lot, with pure water if possible passing through it. 
The best food that can then be given them, is as much 
milk, whey and house swill as can be had, and a mix¬ 
ture of oat and Indian meal about half and half, with 
flaxseed ground with it, at the rate of a pint or so to the 
bushel, or for want of this a quart or two of oat meal 
may be substituted. All this, and more especially if it 
can be cooked beforehand, mixed with an equal quan¬ 
tity of steamed roots of any kind, such as potatoes, beets, 
&c. makes the most palatable, healthful and thriv¬ 
ing food for young pigs or old, that I know of. There 
is a very great saving in cooking food for hogs, and 
making it pretty thin with water; the liquid alone, in 
this case, seems to go farther with them than the whole 
of the food uncooked. Repeated experiments have esta¬ 
blished the fact, that water, under these circumstances, 
becomes very nutricious. Shorts and bran, so much 
given to pigs, is most miserable food alone, and especial¬ 
ly if used without being cooked. It almost invariably 
scours them, and under the most favorable circumstan¬ 
ces I could never see much thrift from the feeding.— 
Cold swill, and above all if any frozen, is very perni¬ 
cious ; it is the cause of several diseases, especially that 
of casting the inwards, and ought never to be fed.— 
When confined, either as store animals or fattening, all 
hogs should have a little sulphur and salt occasionally 
in their food, with pure water to drink at all seasons 
once or twice a day, and charcoal or chunks of rotten 
wood thrown to them, and be allowed now and then to 
come to the ground a short time for the purpose of root¬ 
ing and eating dirt. They may not fat, or rather bloat 
up, quite so fast for this, but their flesh will be much 
superior, and the poor animal will be kept free from the 
fever that otherwise so much torments it; and indeed, it 
is believed, except in rare cases, of all other diseases. 
Of the pathology of the hog, the writer acknowledges 
almost total ignorance,- he trusts, however, that some 
one well qualified will soon be induced to come forward, 
and treat the subject with the ability that it so highly 
merits. In so doing, not only the more extensive breeder, 
but the public at large would be placed under great ob¬ 
ligations, for there are few families in the United States, 
out of our large cities, that, to use the Irish expression, 
do not “ live neatly and keep their pig.” 
A. B. ALLEN. 
Buffalo, December, 1839. 
Book Farming. 
There are two classes of farmers who, it strikes me, 
err equally,—those who indiscriminately denounce all 
“ book farming”—and those, on the other hand, who 
grasp at every visionary theory, every ill-advised con¬ 
jecture, because it is ushered into the world in the col¬ 
umns of an agricultural publication. The first elass 
seem to think truth ceases to become so, by being print¬ 
ed; the other, that speculation is made to assume the 
importance of established fact, by the same process.— 
A farmer, otherwise an intelligent man, not long since 
declared to me his firm conviction “ that one could learn 
nothing about farming from newspapers.” I inquired 
of him if, by his own practice and experience in husban¬ 
dry, he had arrived at any conclusions which he consid¬ 
ered true and undeniable. He had. I then asked him 
if he should communicate to me in a letter those facts, 
would they become any less true and undeniable ? Cer¬ 
tainly not. Well, then, should I cause your letter to be 
published in the Cultivator, would your facts cease to 
be facts by being printed ? The man was convinced.— 
His error, and it is the error of thousands, lay in sup¬ 
posing that all that is printed on the subject must neces¬ 
sarily be theoretical. Too much undoubtedly is so. I 
have known farmers err as far on the side of credulity, 
as the one I have alluded to did on the side of scepticism. 
I knew one who destroyed the lives of several valuable 
animals, by a process which he found recommended by 
a correspondent in an agricultural paper—recommend¬ 
ed, doubtless, without being subjected to the test of ac¬ 
curate experiment. 
It is the duty of the conductors of the press to be ex¬ 
ceedingly careful on this point, not to mislead, where 
they assume to instruct. The line between theory and 
established fact, should be kept broad and well defined. 
Yet a moment’s reflection will convince us, that the con¬ 
ductor of the press should not reject all theory, merely 
as such. This would throw a serious obstacle in the 
way of improvement and discovery. There are many 
who have the ability to form useful projects, who have 
not the means of putting their projects in execution, 
and until this is done, they are theorists. Franklin, 
when he went into the fields and let fly his kite, was but 
a theorist; but when the electric spark answered to his 
touch, theory was converted into discovery- Fulton was 
a theorist until the first steamboat* ploughed the wa¬ 
ters of the Seine, in 1803. Sir Humphrey Davy, so far 
as agriculture was concerned, was but a theorist, yet he 
has conferred more lasting benefits on it, as a science, 
than any other man of his day. The celebrated Arthur 
Young, whose authority on the subject of husbandry is 
universally received and acknowledged, was mainly a 
theorist. The remark will be found generally true, 
though there are striking exceptions to it, that the most 
important discoveries in the various departments of ag¬ 
riculture have not been made fortuitously, but have 
been the fruits of theories, founded on scientific princi¬ 
ples, matured by observation and analogy, and finally 
ascertained to be genuine by the touchstone of experi¬ 
ment. 
The reader, as well as the conductor of the press, is 
called upon to draw the line of demarkation between 
the spurious and the true, the applicable and the inap¬ 
plicable, whether presented in the garb of facts or spec¬ 
ulation. Facts may mislead as well as theories; in¬ 
deed, I apprehend it is a mistake of quite as frequent 
occurrence. The same process will ordinarily produce 
the same result, but the minute and less apparent cir¬ 
cumstances which in many cases govern it, are liable to 
vary, producing disappointment, which to the mass is 
entirely unexplainable. Nature operates upon fixed 
principles, but her agents, unlike those of science, are 
beyond the control of man, neither can they be brought 
to bear in the precise determinate proportions which 
give accuracy to the experiments of the chemist. We 
cannot control the weather—cold and heat, the rain and 
the winds—neither can we always bring to a given stan¬ 
dard the precise properties or combinations of soil, or 
even, with the exception of a few scientific men, decide 
in what proportion they actually exist. 
But the class of facts by far the most calculated to 
mislead, are those which are introduced from the prac¬ 
tice of nations whose systems, institutions, circumstan¬ 
ces of population, relations of property, &c., differ so 
essentially from our own. Agriculture has arrived at a 
higher pitch of improvement in many parts of Europe 
than in our own new and sparsely inhabited country; 
and to England, our Fatherland, especially, have we 
been in the habit of looking for the model of every thing 
that is correct in husbandry. This is to some extent 
proper, but the examples of English agriculturists are 
always to be received with due allowance for the deci¬ 
ded difference between the circumstances which affect 
the agriculture of the two countries. There, land is 
every thing, labor nothing—here the case is exactly re¬ 
versed, labor is every thing, land nothing. If the weal¬ 
thy English agriculturist, situated where money ordina¬ 
rily bears a rate of interest not exceeding four or five 
per cent.; where products find a readier and far better 
market than in the United States; where labor costs 
scarcely a tithe as much, can afford to bestow immense 
labor on drainage; on the collection and preparation of 
manures; on a system of tillage generally not falling 
far short of horticulture in the nicety or the expense of 
its operations—it by no means follows that the Ameri¬ 
can farmer would find it profitable to follow his exam¬ 
ple. The draining, in many instances, would exceed the 
value of the land when drained ; the crop would not pay 
for the manure; and the annual income of the farm 
would fall short of the laborers’ wages. This subject 
was alluded to in a late number of the Genesee Farm¬ 
er. I hope to see it more elaborately followed up here¬ 
after by some competent pen. 
If theory and fact are both so liable to mislead, the 
conductors and the readers of agricultural newspapers 
are called upon, as I have before remarked, to exercise 
a sound discretion in deciding what they shall receive 
or reject. We should apply the same rules of evidence 
to statements submitted to us, that we should deem ne- 
* The first practically successful steamboat. 
