167 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
MAKING PORK. 
Making pork is one of the most essential interests of 
the farmer, and may be made one of the most profita¬ 
ble. We question, however, whether, as generally con¬ 
ducted, much money is made by feeding swine, and the 
reasons are sufficiently plain. In the first place, but lit¬ 
tle attention, if any, is paid to the kind of hog used for 
feeding. It is enough, if the animal, caught and caged 
in the "pen, is a hog; the fact that a given quantity of 
food fed to some breeds will make nearly or quite as 
much again pork as when fed to some other breeds, is 
overlooked ; and an astonishing quantity of roots and 
grain is thus annually wasted. In the second place, the 
mode of feeding is very defective. The food may be 
good, but if given to the hog unprepared, or uncooked, 
much of its efficiency is lost. To feed hogs.profitably, 
they should from the first, be kept in a thriving state. 
Not half fattened at one time, and then allowed to fall 
away until they are miserably poor ; but kept constant¬ 
ly improving from the time they leave the sow until 
they are ready for slaughtering. It takes a much lar¬ 
ger amount of food to raise an animal of any kind al¬ 
lowed to become poor, than to keep one constantly thri¬ 
ving. Again, the time allotted to feeding, is usually too 
limited ; good firm heavy pork cannot be made, no mat¬ 
ter what may be the feed used, short of three or four 
months. Hogs may be pulled out, and made to look 
pretty fair, but their meat will not be hard and firm, 
and will be affected with the complaint called shrinking 
in the pot. Hogs fatten much faster in moderate 
weather, than in severe cold weather ; and hence the 
process of fattening should commence as early as the 
food to be used can be had. After the process of feed¬ 
ing begins, see that the hogs have enough ; to suppose 
a squealing, ravening hog will fat, is a mistake, but un¬ 
fortunately a common one. 
Farmers in general miss a large part of the profits 
that might be made from feeding pork, by not paying 
attention to the making of manure from the swine. For 
corn, a variety of experiments has convinced us theie is 
no manure that can be compared with that of the pig; 
and the farmer who permits any of this to be wasted, or 
does not give the animal an opportunity of converting 
as much mold, vegetable matter, &tc. into manure as can 
be done, is a great loser in the end. Some able farmers 
have estimated that the manure made by a lot of pigs, 
where the proper materials are provided, will fully pay 
the expense of feeding; but there is no doubt i i they do not 
do this, they will, by fermenting the most enriching com¬ 
post for crops, add essentially to the ultimate profits of 
the farmer. To make good pork, a hog should not be 
less than fifteen months old, kept constantly thriving, 
not have a yard as large as the farm or the highway, 
and be fed on good food not less than three months. 
COOKING FOOD FOR ANIMALS. 
All are aware that grain of almost every kind great¬ 
ly increases in bulk by steaming or boiling, and this 
bulk is greatest at the moment the grain is swelled so 
as to crack or burst its skin. It is also known that 
cooked food is far more nutritious to animals, than that 
which is uncooked ; and many have gone on the suppo¬ 
sition that its increase in value for food was equal to 
its increase in bulk in cooking. This is doubtless a 
mistake, as the nutritive power of articles is rarely in 
proportion to their size, and never perhaps exactly in 
proportion to their increase of bulk in cooking. 
Reaumur instituted a series of experiments to deter¬ 
mine the rate of increase in different articles of food 
most commonly used for animals, and found the result 
of some of them as follows : 
4 pints of oats after boiling, filled 7 pints. 
4 
4 
4 
4 
4 
In the 
a 
(i 
u 
ll 
a 
barley 
buckwheat 
Indian corn 
Wheat 
Rye 
continuation of his 
10 
14 
15 
10 
« 15 
experiments to ascertain 
the effect cf such food on animals, he found that with 
some of these articles, though the bulk was much in¬ 
creased, the total of food required to satisfy the animal, 
was the same as if no cooking had taken place; or that 
an animal that would eat half a bushel of oats dry, 
would eat a bushel cooked with the same ease. The 
nutritive power was, however, apparently increased, or 
the whole of it contained in tbe grain made available ; 
which, when grain is fed whole or raw is rarely the 
case. On the whole, he came to the conclusion that 
when wheat, barley, or Indian corn, is used for feeding, 
it is far more economical to boil or cook these grains, 
than to feed them in a raw state ; but that little is gain¬ 
ed on the score of economy, when time, fuel, &c., are 
taken into consideration, in cooking oats, rye and buck¬ 
wheat. 
In determining the question of economy, much we 
think is depending on the manner in which the cooking 
of the grain is performed, whether alone, or with other 
substances, such as roots. Alone, corn is the most im¬ 
proved by cooking of any of the grains, and the value 
of corn meal for making pork, it has been shown by ex¬ 
periment, is almost doubled when made into pudding. 
We have long been in the habit of boiling and steaming 
potatoes for feeding pigs or making pork. With them, 
in the early part of the feeding, we incorporate apples, 
squashes, pumpkins, or indeed almost any vegetables of 
which swine are fond. The grain we use, is ground, 
and either steamed with the roots, or mixed with the 
hot mass in the vats, as it is taken from the steamer. 
As the feeding progresses, the quantity of meal is in¬ 
creased, until towards the last, that material alone is 
used. Corn is decidedly the best grain for making 
pork; peas and barley are next; with the others, we 
have had little experience, though what we have had 
with buckwheat has impressed us Favorably of its value. 
EXTRAORDINARY SECRETION OF MILK. 
Milk is one of the most important substances in na¬ 
ture, and the only one that can be named intended for 
food and for nothing else. The laws which govern its se¬ 
cretion are very well understood, and their general regu¬ 
larity well established; yet there are some singular ab¬ 
errations from these laws which are worthy of notice. 
One of these aberrations is the furnishing of milk by 
males; of which several well authenticated instances 
are on record. Every general reader is acquainted with 
the history given by Humboldt of the Indian at the 
missions on the Apure, in South America, who after 
the death of his wile, nourished her young babe from 
his own breast, and succeeded in rearing it a strong and 
healthy child. A similar case has occurred in the vi¬ 
cinity of Sebastapol, in Russia, as given in one of the 
London Medical Journals, in which a father who lost 
his wife, succeeded in rearing his child with milk deriv¬ 
ed, most unexpectedly at first, from his own breast. 
The child was applied to the breast in both these cases 
for the purpose of quieting it, at first, and a secretion 
of milk soon took place sufficient to satisfy their wants. 
Another instance of this unnatural secretion, as it 
may be termed, occurred not long since in Prussia, in the 
case of a grandmother of 73 years of age, who had 
borne no children for some fifteen years, but whose 
daughter dying, left a little child, which she took it up¬ 
on herself to rear, and to quiet during the night, allow¬ 
ed the child to place its lips to her shrivelled and 
shrunken breast. To her surprise, the milk soon ap¬ 
peared, and the child found nourishment until old enough 
to wean. 
This singular deviation from the ordinary course of 
nature in the production of milk has been observed in 
animals. A few years since a farmer in western New- 
York wishing to wean some calves, turned them from 
the cows into a distant field where were several young 
cattle among which was a two year old heifer, that had 
never borne a calf. Going to look at them in a few days 
he found the heifer and one of the calves by themselves, 
and to his surprise discovered that the heifer’s udder 
had become much enlarged, and exhibited every sign 
of containing milk. That such was the case, was de¬ 
monstrated by the calf’s sucking soon after, and by the 
heifer’s continuing to give milk for some time after 
she and her adopted protegee were separated. 
In a late number of a foreign agricultural paper we 
find the following singular instance of this deviation, in 
the case of the sheep. “ Mr. Seaman Beale, of Ten- 
terden, has a wether hog [a two years old] which has 
for some time past suckled a Jamb. The lamb was of¬ 
ten seen apparently sucking the sheep, but it was not 
supposed that it derived any nourishment from its ef¬ 
forts. However, on shearing the wether, it was found 
to be otherwise, and that a stream of milk could be pro¬ 
duced from him equal to that from a ewe.” 
A wag at our elbow has hinted that if this power of 
producing milk from the breast is universal in man, old 
bachelors, whom all must admit are now useless, might, 
by administering to the necessities of the unfortunates 
in our orphan asylums, iu this way do the state some 
service. 
ENGLISH BEER. 
Some little controversy has arisen in England between 
the farmers and the brewers, in the course of which the 
following facts have been established: 
1. That the number of beer shops in 1834, was 37.381; 
in 1835, 39,654 ; in 1836, 44,144; in 1837, 45,394. 
2. That the number of licensed public houses at 
which beer was sold, was, in 1834, 53,714; and in 1835, 
55,751. 
3. That the quantity of malt on which duty was paid 
in 1836, was 44,387,719 quarters; in 1837, 40,551,149 
quarters ; in 1838, 40,505,556 quarters. 
From this decrease in the malt, and the great increase 
in the quantity of beer made and vended, it was con¬ 
jectured that the practice of drugging beer, or trimming 
it as it is called by the brewers, was also on the in¬ 
crease. A resort to the table of imports showed this 
to be the fact; especially as one of the great brewers, 
Mr. Child, furnished the following formidable list of 
articles, of which more or less was used in the various 
kinds of brewing:—“Treacle, liquorice, cocculus indi- 
cus, salt of tartar, heading, ginger, lime slaked, linseed, 
cinnamon, hops, malt, opium, belladonna, hyoscamus, 
cunio cuacus, nux vomica, and grains of Paradise.” Of 
these articles, many of them, it is well known, are most 
active poisons; yet taking three of the most prominent, 
the increase is as follows:—Cocculus indicus in 1831, 
3,541 lbs.; in 1834, 4,559 lbs.—increase 1,018 lbs. Nux 
vomica in 1831, 2,547 lbs.; in 1833, 4,124 lbs.—increase 
1,577 lbs. Grains of Paradise in 1831, 8,722 lbs.; in 
1833, 40,411 lbs.—increase 31,689 lbs. Thus it appears 
that while the use of malt, the article that gave to beer 
its greatest value, has decreased, the use of noxious 
drugs has increased to a very great extent, and her Ma¬ 
jesty’s subjects are not only cheated, but in addition 
poisoned. 
The above facts are gathered from some papers on 
the subject in the English periodicals, and we imagine 
are worthy of notice in this country as well as in that. 
Inquiries, Correspondence, #c. 
Culture of the Beet. 
The following description of the culture of the sugar 
beet is from a correspondent in Virginia. With him the 
root has been very successful, and it promises to be of the 
greatest value to the south, where green food for milch 
cows, sheep, &c. is obtained with difficulty. At the north 
where labor is higher, the necessity of using a drill for 
planting the seeds instead of the hand would be apparent, 
although we have found the seeds sown by the drill rarely 
germinate as well and evenly as when sown by hand, 
owing probably to the difference in covering ; the drill not 
performing it in common soils as evenly as the hand. 
The time of sowing named is doubtless the most proper 
in the latitude of the writer, but this is a point to be deter, 
mined by the soil, climate, &c. 
“ Early in May is, I think, the best time for planting. 
Have your ground plowed and in good order. Take a two 
horse plow, and begin in the left of your ground, proceed¬ 
ing to the right, draw a furrow, turn to the right and 
double it; turn to the left, your near horse walking in the 
last furrow; turn to the right and come up, and you have 
two ridges, and so proceed. Take a rake and rake off all 
clods from the top of the ridge, and at the same time flatten 
it down so as to leave it about three inches wide on the top. 
Take a plow line or other cord, tie a stake to each end of 
it, and stretch it out. Take a stick of the length you wish 
the distance between the plants to be, (I think ten inches 
the best,) and with a piece of coal, chalk, or any thing of 
that kind, make a mark on the line, as often as the seeds 
are to be put in. Draw the line tight on the top of the 
ridge, and direct your planters to put a beet seed at each 
mark, and about an inch and a half deep. In this way 
they go on almost as fast as in planting potatoes. When 
the beet is well up, if any are missing, plant another seed ; 
when the weeds make their appearance, a hoy with a 
sharp hoe can go very fast and cut the weeds on the top 
of the ridges, as he has but a smooth surface to clear. 
When the beet has grown about the size of your little fin. 
ger, then thin them. Good seed generally produces three 
or four plants. Transplanting the young root has not 
been successful with me. Soon after thinning you must 
take a shovel plow and run between the rows; this will 
cut up all the weeds; and then draw the dirt to the plants 
with a hoe. If your roots become weedy, use the shovel 
plow again, and another hoeing is all that is necessary. 
When you gather them, take a plow and throw a furrow 
from the beet on one side, take hold of the beet with one 
hand, and it will come up very easy; twist off the top 
with the other and throw them in the wagon or the basket. 
By throwing up ridges, you have double the depth of soil 
for your root; you have but about three inches surface to 
hoe, instead of three feet; and in harvesting you can go 
as fast as you please.” 
Inquiry—Beet Sugar. 
“Messrs. Editors —I want to know, not me alone, 
but the agricultural community generally, of some cheap 
and easy manner in which sugar maybe extracted from 
the beet. I have seen a little work on the subject by 
Mr. Church, of Northampton, good theoretically doubt¬ 
less, but not sufficiently plain and practical fora farmer 
to take hold of in a small way. For the process of de¬ 
fecation, or the separation of the juice from the sub¬ 
stances it contains in its first state, he recommends sul¬ 
phuric acid, a mixture of lime water and blood, and 
animal carbon. These things may be used where a 
person is convenient to a large city, or a laboratory, 
hut they will not do for us. We want some simple pro¬ 
cess to bring the juice of the beet into the consistency 
of sugar. It is not at all necessary to go into a process 
by ivhich double refined loaf sugar is made, but a good 
brown sugar suitable for family use. If you can give 
us this, you add at once at least one-fourth to the sup¬ 
plies of every family who can produce it. Most of us 
have a plenty of milk, meat, eggs and butter, and the 
sugar with them will be a substitute for fresh provision, 
and make the most agreeable of nutritive diet. This is 
a subject on which we farmers and the country have a 
deep interest, and I hope some of our scientific or prac¬ 
tical men will respond, and show us a cheap, simple 
and easy process, for such I doubt not exists. Permit 
me to add, there is a general impression, that Prof. Sil- 
liman can, if he will, give us such a process ; and who¬ 
ever does this, will find his name as indissolubly con¬ 
nected with the prosperity of the country as is that of 
Watts with the steam engine, or Whitney with the pro¬ 
duction of cotton. B-, Cabell co. Ya.” 
Remarks by the Editors.— We have had no expe¬ 
rience in the making of beet sugar, but we cannot think 
the production of an article for common use would be at 
ail difficult. If the root was dried and then pulverized, 
the sugar would be dissolved, and the extraneous matters 
left with the mass at once ; or if the juice was pressed 
from fresh roots, the defecation could be performed as 
with maple sap, though it might require a more imme¬ 
diate action, to avoid souring. The most simple pro¬ 
cess we have yet noticed is the following, as described 
by a farmer of Genesee: He took about five bushels 
of white and yellow sugar beets to a cider mill, ground 
and pressed from them a barrel of juice. This he 
treated as so much maple sap, by boiling and cleansing, 
and it yielded about twenty pounds of good su°-ar. 
Milk and the white of an egg was used for the clarify¬ 
ing ; but the sugar was dark, and would be better by 
some more skilful method in purifying. He believes 
