Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1885-03-06
Agricultural.


The N. T.. Farmer in answer to a Vermont
correspondent, who claimed that manure is
doubled in value by being worked over by
hogs says
1--WE are we'll aware that it is often said
that manure is greatly benefited by having
hogs roofing and trampling it. We claim
that much depends upon circumstances.
Horse manure, made by animals that are well
fed on grain, IL dropped through stable floor
traps in cellar, will heat violently IL II is
not trampled or spead about Such manure
may, therefore, be greatly benefited by be-
ing spread about and trodden under foot by
swine. Hogs could hardly tread IL hard
enough to prevent some fermentation, and
az horse manure is very quick acting at all
times, IL is generally ready to give up its
plant food 10 young plants as soon az they
can take IL. But II is different with manure
from cattle. That acts slowly, and will thus
be improved for immediate use IL 1t is par
TALLY decomposed by gentle fermentation,
such as would take place in cellar like that
of DIR. Bowen's, where the different kinds of
manure are mixed aud evenly distributed
through q we'll made compost heap. 1t has
often been claimed for hogs that they will
make large quantities of rich manure from
carloads OF tough sod thrown into their
pens, for them to root over and saturate with
urine. Such statements are often very eX-
travagant. Large piles of turf that hogs
have run over for few weeks, may become
As a shrewd hired man OF ours once ex-
pressed livery good land but it can not
properly be called rich manure. It has been
our own practice to keep hogs upon horse
manure because they can keep it from be-
coming over. heated cheaper than we could
by hand labor, but other manure we prefer
to handle without any aid from hogs"
There is no intimstion in the above that
the health of swine or the quality of the
pork is in any way affected by feeding on
manure and living in it. If it is not, we
should still prefer western pork made from
hogs fattened by running at large in the corn
fields, to the homemade product of the ma
nure heap. Prof. Gamgee eminent both in
England and in this country as an expert in
diseases of animals, says that parasitic NAL
aides in the pig specially abound in that Sec
ton of the United Kingdom where swine live
most among human beings. The Yorkshire
and Berkshire pigs, in their native counties,
inclosed in the farm yards of their breeders,
are free from worms that are likely to live in
the body of man. The Irish pig is the one
most likely to be injured by Entozoa, and
the reason for this is evident when we know
how much the cottager relies on rearing
porker, which is permitted the free range of
house and yard where every description Of
filth is devoured, charged with the ova of
parasites expelled by man or some of the
lower animals. We disregard in
our ignorance the most common precautions
to protect ourselves from loathsome diseases,
and not only permit dogs 10 eat any kind of
offsl in and around slaughter houses but
sanction the existence of piggeries where all
kinds of garbage, charged with worms or
their eggs, are daily devoured by swine. The
majority of germs calculated to engender
parasites are to be found in abundance in the
contents of the alimentary canal of human
beings and domestic quadrupeds. If pigs
are permitted to eat these we must expect
hams, bacon, and pork sausages to be
charged with the embryonic forms of human
EntozOa"