The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1878-01-10

swine.
Having Just delivered my last lot Of
hogs, which ! sold Tor eight cents per
pound for all those about 200 pounds and
under, and for seven cents per pound for
thosc above 200 pounds, and having also
bought sons young ones for another year,
feel Tree to wrte a few lines on swine
in general.
It is astonishing how much improve
! mont has been effected in the whole swine
Of the country. The Berkshire breed il
the most fashionable and, IN ia the case
with the short.hOrn cattle, extraordinary
prices are paid for them 10 those holding
particularly fav0rite strains, and though
there IL much borderingon the ridiculous
in the absurdly high prices, it Is not
altogether folly, since, beside giving
greater rnown to this particular breed,
it causes n general respect for pure bred
stock. There are several other really
good breeds, and much Of the excellence
Of the best types has been attained by
high feeding followed upthrough success
! i've generations. BY this remark there
il no reflection intended on high feed
ing for, on the contrary, IL would be OF
the utmost benefit to farmers if from the
birth OF every animal on the farm they
would all feed in a way 10 force growth
and secure the very beat quality.
There is no doubt about the Essex and
the white breeds being possessed of all
good qualities, IA also the Magic and the
x-l lr,.l ., FalutiIn a, thn luut man.
toned, ! can remember when there were
hundreds Of thousands of the reds, ar, AZ
they were then called, sandy pigs. They
were decidedly much more prolific than
hogs in general are nowadays, for 1t WAS
rare TO see a SOW, after her first litter,
with less than twelve or thirteen pigs.
Finy-pvcn years ago my father had n
sandy Cow killed, which weighed forty
scores, 800 pounds. T~hirty.eight years
ago was steward for a large landowner,
and had a Young sOw slaughtered, after
she had only had two %litters, and her
weight was so pounds Her mother, a
Yorkshire white SOW, WAS killed pre-
viousIy, weighing sos pounds The
mother was nine feet long, and the
daughter not eight feet, but she wa
thicker and deeper. The last mentioned
had her pig. by an Essex boar, and won
a great many premiums ut agricultural
fairs from this cross, the Offspring Of
which were not large when full.gr0wn,
like the ones mentioned above, but they
came quickly TO maturity. The progeny
OF this cross between the large Yorkshire
white and the small black Essex was
very good for lattening at any age, Tor
from the age Of two months they would
be only Just able to waddle about, till at
the age OF ten months the show pigs
became totally blind from IN a%ccumula.
| ton Of fat, and were fed with balls OF
hurley meal put into their mouths as
they sat upon their launches.
II is very certain that il will not pay
to Keep pigs running around in what If
called "atore' condition, but which is
often a halt starved state; for, although
they cost but little for food, they pay no.
thing at all for that little whereas, when
fed well from the first, they pay all the
while, and by being kept in styes they
will 20 enrich any farm with their manure
~ to bring it up to bear heavy crops.
Indeed, their d%roppings are richer in
icrtilizing properties than those OF any
other anim-ls excepting those fed on II
great deal Of oilcake, Swine are iattened
by a great proportion OF the best tenant.
farmers in England on account Of the
prOdigiOus crops which the manure from
fatteninp hogs produces. 80 well il this
understood there that Il farmer is well
satisfied il the manure is all he gains for
the trouble; that is, il the hogs when
sold make enough to pay for the feeding
the farmer thinks the manure 4 good
profit.
The worst Of hog feeding in the west
aud south is, that the cultivated land is
robbed and impoverished by giving the
corn to the hogs either in the woods or in
places where the manure is all lost, and
If the present generation of western
farmers could be allowed to revisit the
earth Il century hence, they would find
its inhabitants ut that period lamenting
the ignorance and terrible s~elfshness of
themselves, the spiritual visitants, when
they were in the ncsh.--GcO. Gardner,
in Rurai NeW Yorker.