THE CULTIVATOR. 
77 
aca 
into wash-room, S. door out of wash-room into wood-house, 
T. outside door, U. & V. wood-house large doors, W. oven, 
X. fire-place, Y. Y. arch, Z. stairs to cheese and wool rooms, 
2. 2. close presses for rooms C. & E. which may be made 
in the stone wall, by placing a lintel from 3 to 3, and make 
a stud partition underneath. In case the front stairs are par¬ 
titioned underneath, there may be a close press for room D. 
8 /t 4. 
Explanation of Fig. 50.—A. B. C. D. I. N. are sleeping 
apartments, E. garret stairs, F. close press under said stairs, 
G. G. G. close presses, H. H. H. H. flues of the fire-places 
on fig. 49, J. front stairs, K. door out of back part into 
room D., L. a window to light landing O. of front stairs, 
which window is placed high enough to clear the roof of 
baek part. 
An estimate of the expense, as labor and materials could be 
procured in Rutland, Vermont. 
518 perch of stone, delivered quarter of a mile from 
quarry, at 50 cts. per perch, - - - $259 00 
Laying 518 perches of stone wall, at 50 cents, 259 00 
250 bushels of lime, delivered at 25 cts. per bushel, 62 50 
1200 bushels of sand, at 2J cts. per bushel, - 30 00 
6 boxes of glass, of 50 feet each, at $3.12| per box, 18 75 
9000 feet of lath boards, at $6 per 1000 feet, - 54 00 
6000 feet of lining boards, at $4 per 1000 feet, - 24 00 
6000 feet of spruce, 1 £ inch floor boards, at $10 per 
1000 feet, ------- 60 00 
Brads, locks, latches, &c. &c. - - - 30 00 
25,000 pine shingles, at $2.50 per 1000, - - 62 50 
700 feet of square timber, at 4 cts. per foot, - 28 00 
3000 running feet of scantling, &c. for joists, rafters, 
studs, &,c. at 2 cts. per foot, - - - - 60 00 
10,000 feet of pine stuff, at $20 per 1000 , - - 200 00 
2 setts of polished jambs and mantels, at $10 each 20 00 
2 do. common, at $4 each, .... 8 00 
Plastering, including board and tending, - - 60 00 
Painting and materials, do. 75 00 
Joiners’ and Carpenters’ work, including board. 600 00 
4 hearth stones, - - - - • - - 14 00 
7 cwt. of nails, at 6 J cts. per lb. ... 45 50 
$1,970 25 
Expense of wood-house and wash-room, &c. 247 00 
$1,723 25 
The above estimate is calcutated for a plain but good 
workmanlike structure—and a brick building finished equal¬ 
ly as well, would cost $1,650: Wood do. $1,500, all without 
W'ood-house and wash part—and with wood-house and w ash 
room, for the plan as follows: stone, $1,970.25; brick, $1,897; 
wood, $1,745, 
I have not given any plan of the cellar, on account of in¬ 
truding too much, as I have already, on your columns; but I 
will here state, that the cellar windows ought to be placed 
perpendicular to the windows on fig. 49, and to have no cel¬ 
lar windows in the front of the house. The cellar may be 
bricked up on the inside, leaving a vacancy, and have double 
sashes, which will prevent frost from penetrating—cellar 
outside door, back and under the buttery. 
A stone building can be built to be as warm as either brick 
or wood, by building bond timber in the walls in their pro¬ 
per places, and battening to the same, leaving a vacancy be¬ 
tween the stone and the plastering. 
Those desirous of obtaining the above, or any other kind 
of plans, may procure the same at a moderate price, by ad¬ 
dressing the subscriber, postage paid, at Rutland, Vermont. 
Respectfully yours, JOHN CAIN. 
Farming in Wisconsin. 
As I have plenty of room, I will give you something in 
relation to this territory. It may prove interesting to some 
of your readers to know that there is yet a vast quantity of 
lands in this territory subject to entry at $1.25 per acre. 
It is as yet but partially settled, the lands bordering on the 
main thoroughfare only being taken up, leaving the interior, 
in which there is situated some of the finest lands in the 
United States, to the examination and selection of the im¬ 
migrant. There are the counties of Dodge and Dane, in 
which the lands have been taken only in the neighborhood 
of the seat of government and a few scattering sections. 
Here, then, is a noble field for the emigrating farmer from the 
east. Thousands of acres of the finest Wheatland in the 
world are yet to be found, together with water powers for 
the construction of mills, which are plentiful throughout the 
country. Lands in this vicinty have produced at the rate of 
forty bushels of wheat to the acre the last season. I think 
it can be asserted with truth, that a finer wheat country can 
not be found. Its growth sometimes is astonishing; we have 
seen it that stood six feet high, with a corresponding thick¬ 
ness of straw., and yield a fine berry. A great deal of spring 
wheat is raised, the country being so recently settled that 
winter wheat is not generally sown. Oats are raised in abun¬ 
dance, and are sold at from two to three shillings a bushels. 
The early varieties of corn are cultivated with success, for 
though we are farther north than Albany, we have a milder 
climate, which allows of the growth and perfection of this 
old stand by of the farmer. The Dutton corn is raised here, 
and generally answers all that has been said in praise of it. 
Barley and rye are not much cultivated; but in the root line 
we can go ahead of any body. Ruta baga, mangel wurtzel, 
sugar beets, carrots, onions, potatoes, &c. grow here to the 
greatest perfection. But it is useless for me to enumerate 
the different articles that can be cultivated in the territory; 
it must suffice to say that all that can be raised in the 
state of New-York or the New-England states, can here be 
raised in abundance. 
I can not close this without taking the pen in defence of 
the much talked-of, much abused Chinese corn. I have seen 
many remarks in favor and against it in the various 
papers, and I can not satisfy myself to let this opportunity 
pass without offering a defence. I procured an ear from 
New-York last spring, and planted, and it answered every 
expectation. It yielded me at the rate of eighty bushels to 
the acre, and I have so great an opinion of.it that I shall 
plant four or five acres of it this summer. It ripened in 
ninety days, and is a beautiful specimen of corn, growing 
very heavy and thick, forming fine fodder. 
Milwaukee, Wit. Feb. 8 , 1840. E. B. QUINER. 
Berkshire Pigs. —[Fig. 53.] 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker —Having for some years paid 
much attention to this most valuable breed of swine, and 
having been frequently requested to give the history, marks 
of identity, statistics, habits, qualities, and properties of the 
animal, I have prepared the following, as a reply to the many 
queries 1 am continually receiving on the subject. Such a 
paper would seem the more necessary, as it is evident the 
grossest frauds and impositions have been, and probably will 
be, practiced by the unprincipled on the unsuspecting pub¬ 
lic. 
For instance, a drover collects a few hundreds of swine, 
beyond, or in the west of this state, a heterogenous mass, 
comprising every kind, from the alligator to the snapping 
turtle. By the simple process of passing through Albany on 
his way down east, his drove becomes full blood Berkshires, 
though they may exhibit in color all the tints of the rainbow; 
and by the time he reaches Boston, it is not impossible certi¬ 
ficates may be shown to prove the purchase from some noted 
dealer in swine. 
The effect of this deception may be found in the remark 
Which is frequently heard in distant parts of the country : 
“ Our folks have tried the Berkshires, and find them to be 
no great shakes after all; no better than the common hog ;” 
and well may the remark be made, as it is not probable these 
persons had ever seen a Berkshire pig in their lives. In en¬ 
deavoring to palm oft’ their black and white counterfeits, 
some have traced the genealogy of their pigs to Noah’s ark, 
and found them to be the exact counterparts of the two sav¬ 
ed in that vast menagerie : and others I presume, have trac 
ed their stocks to the garden of Eden, and find in their white 
Berkshires an emblem of the purity and innocence of that 
place, though I have never found white, except in the ex¬ 
tremities, to be any emblem of the Berkshire pig at all. The 
genuine Berkshires, were brought to this country in 1832, by 
S. Hawes, Esq. an English gentleman, who purchased Judge 
Spencer’s seat, three miles from Albany. 
Mr. Hawes, associated with several other gentlemen, in 
England, had by a series of experiments and inves¬ 
tigations, continued for more than twenty years, pre¬ 
vious to his coming to this country, brought the full blooded 
Berkshire pig, to his present high excellence, a “ noble ani¬ 
mal,” superior in symmetry and perfection, apparently con¬ 
scious of the admiration he every where excites, and a no¬ 
ble monument of what the plastic hand of cultivation can 
effect over that otherwise uncouth, filthy, and devouring 
cannibal. 
1 was the first to procure the breed from Mr. Hawes in 
1832. These pigs soon attracted general admiration; in 1834 
and ’5, they were first introdued into Ohio and Kentucky, 
and since that period, I have sent more or less of them to 
every state of the Union ;' and I understand they took pre¬ 
miums in every county in the two states above named, last 
autumn. Where the full bloods have been obtained, and 
continued without alloy, and not suffered to run out by breed¬ 
ing with those too near akin, nor let to run with other hogs, 
as they will in these ways surely degenerate, I have never 
heard but one opinion, and that of unqualified approbation. 
Mr. Hawes returned to England with his family in 1838, but 
through him and his agency, I have, since 1832, procured 
four fresh importations of the best animals—the last in the 
fall of 1839. With these preliminary remarks, I shall now 
proceed to point out some of the characteristics of the true 
Berkshire pig. 
Color. —The Berkshire pigs imported as above, are prin¬ 
cipally black, with the ends of the hairs tinged with red or 
brown, giving them a beautiful brilliant changeable appear¬ 
ance in the sun, something like velvet of that color. Mr. 
Hawes informed me that he had never known a full blood 
to have less than three white feet, some white in the face or 
end of the nose, and occasionally white hairs interspersed 
over the whole surface—the end of the tail invariably white; 
there are, however, slight variations from the aforesaid co¬ 
lor, as some are much less brilliant, their coats more sandy, 
and hair slightly inclined to curl. Pigs were imported from 
Berkshire forty years ago, nearly of the same color, but far 
inferior in point of rotundity, and other essential points of 
form. All the stock procured from Mr. Hawes, those which 
I have bred, and all the full bloods through any other chan¬ 
nel, have been essentially the same in point of color. Four 
years since, I saw a boar, that the owner informed me he 
purchased from on board a ship, for a full blood. His form 
and color was right; and being anxious to get a fresh cross, 
I took Mr. Hawes to look at him. He said his appearance 
was good, and as a test, I might put him to one of my full 
blood sows, which I did. At the litter, two pigs were all 
black, three all white, the balance Berkshires. Mr. Hawes 
pronounced him a counterfeit; as the result proved he had 
blood of different races in his veins. 
Considering the color as essential in determining the cha¬ 
racter of Berkshires, I have been much surprised at the ef¬ 
forts that have been made in some quarters to break down 
color as a test of purity. One maintains, that according to 
his information, they have as much white as black, in Eng¬ 
land; and that the color imported by Mr. Hawes, was mere¬ 
ly accidental. Another somewhat extensive breeder or 
speculator in Berkshires, informed me, as an apology for full 
bloods of every color, that it was from a particular mode of 
breeding in England, that colors resulted. Perhaps peeled 
sticks have produced on swine there, the effects they once 
did on the cattle of Laban ! There is at this time in the vi¬ 
cinity of this city, an imported sow, all white, and three 
others with about as much white as black: two of the males 
I have seen, and from their general appearance, I should not 
hesitate to call them impure. I have been informed that a 
planter from Kentucky, purchased a boar from a gentleman 
on Long-Island, entirely white, from a stock he had imported 
as Berkshires; and I have seen one bred in this vicinity se¬ 
ven-eighths Berkshire, purely white, retaining all the Berk¬ 
shire points of form; but such will most certainly very soon 
degenerate into the common breeds. I have never met with 
a pure black Berkshire pig, although there are many advo¬ 
cates for them before the public. 
I may add here, that last spring I saw an English gentle¬ 
man emigrating to Upper Canada, who had a number of very 
fine animals he was taking on with him, cattle, sheep, and 
two pigs. He informed me, that he was born and raised in 
Berkshire, and had paid particular attention to making the 
best selection of animals to bring out with him. The color 
of his pigs agreed precisely with those of Mr. Hawns’ impor¬ 
tation; and he informed me, that it was the only standard 
color for the full blood. All colors were sold, he said, in 
England for full blood, and it was extremely difficult, if not 
impossible, for a stranger to procure such as could be fully 
depended upon. Mr. Hawes’ importations he pronounced 
pure, and fine animals. I have the testimony of a number 
of other gentlemen well acquainted with the Berkshire pig 
in his native country, and they agree with the statement gi¬ 
ven as to color, &c. indeed, were this not the case with the 
pure bloods, it would seem strange, that the pigs sent out by 
Mr. Hawes, at four different times within eight years, should 
happen to be all of them within a few shades of the same 
color. 
Whatever may be the intentions or wishes of those who 
have shown so much anxiety to break down the distinction 
of color, I think it would be as easy to introduce all white 
or all black leopards, as pure blood Berkshires of similar de¬ 
scription; and any gentleman purchasing pigs as Berkshires, 
other than of the color above described, may have just rea¬ 
son to suspect their purity. I would advise purchasers who 
wish first rate animals, and pay high prices, to be particular¬ 
ly careful in ascertaining their pedigree; even if imported, 
they are not secure against imposition, unless proof is afford¬ 
ed that they were selected by competent persons. No pig 
should be supposed imported, the vender of which cannot 
produce a bill of lading; as there is reason to believe that 
some, after a little travel, have been dubbed imported, that 
had never snuffed salt water. A little attention to these 
things would have a salutary effect in frustrating the attempts 
at imposition so frequently made, and with such detriment 
to the public. 
Objections have been made to Berkshires on account of 
their supposed black rind, which is not the case after a good 
scald. A black scurf, or outer covering of the skin, comes 
off, leaving a rind not much thicker than paper, much more 
white and beautiful than that of any other swine. 
Size.— Full grown Berkshires are of all sizes, from 1000 
lbs. downwards; the reason why there are so many varying 
sizes among those imported, is this: gentlemen in England 
wishing to have small ones for family use, have selected the 
smallest of their litters for breeding; and as the result of a 
well known law, have purposely procured a smaller stock. 
Others, preferring a larger size for market, have pursued tho 
reverse of this course, and run their stock up to a very great 
size. 
In the autumn of 1838, Mr. Hawes brought me one fema’e 
and two male pigs, unrelated to each other, and also to those 
of the former importation—one from Newbury, one from 
Teal, and the other from Reading, all in Berkshire. These 
I procured expressly for a new cross; their color is the same 
