BREEDS OF SWINE. 403 



their hoofs properly trimmed before winter sets in. During winter, as in the 

 fall, keep the lambs and weaker ones by themselves as they require better care 

 and feed to develop them and keep them in good condition than mature sheep. 

 <TOod clover hay (fed in the shed morning and night) with cornstalks or straw 

 and a good feed of grain in the yard during the day makes a very good winter 

 feed for lambs, although some would say they should have roots in addition 

 to the above. As for breeding ewes I should feed wild or bottom land hay 

 or cornstalks in morning in yard (if not too cold or stormy), grain and straw 

 at noon, and good clover hay in shed at night, and be sure that they exercise 

 freely in the open air each day, as that is essential to the health of man or 

 beast, and especially so to breeding animals. For grain during winter I pre- 

 , f er one part corn, one of bran and two of oats, and all sheep should have free 

 access to salt and water both winter and summer if possible. 



The breeding ewes should again be tagged before they begin to yean their 

 lambs, and about this time I should prefer to begin feeding clover hay both 

 morning and night, as more feed is now required to keep them in condition. 



I would prefer to have all the lambs yeaned by the 1st of May. We always 

 raise a greater percentage of April iambs than of later ones, and they get a 

 better growth during sjammer, go into the winter in better condition and 

 make better sheep than later ones. 



I would begin turning my sheep out in the spring as soon as the grass got 

 well started, and give them a light feed of both hay and grain when tliey come 

 to the barn at night until there was sufficient substance and nutriment to the 

 grass, for when grass first starts in the spring it is not very nutritious. I 

 would have the shearing done from first to middle of May. Keep sheep 

 housed at night and during storms until into June, aud thus have a healthy, 

 thriving flock, free from the damage done by the perplexing and dangerous 

 maggot fly so common at this season. During summer look to your sheep 

 often, do not keep them too long in one pasture, give them a change, and 

 a rather short pasture is best, but not quite as short as some I have seen. 



BREEDS OF SWINE. 



BY D. P. JACOBS OF CONCORD. 

 [Read at the Hanover Institute, February 8, 1887.] 



Mr. Presideistt, Ladies and Gentlemen — Through the courtesy of your 

 committee of arrangements I have been honored by an invitation to read an 

 essay upon the different breeds of swine. 



Location, climate, habits, care and feed all have their effects upon our 

 domestic animals. Different breeds of animals belonging to the same gen- 

 eral class are formed in different countries, and individuals of these several 

 breeds are so unlike that it is hard to believe that they all sprang from one 

 common source. The massive Percheron horse could no more have been 

 produced on the plains of Arabia than tropical fruits could be grown in 

 Alaska. The noble Short Horn could not have been produced on Jersey 

 Island nor the Shropshire sheep in Spain. Each country, owing to peculiar- 



