2i6 Fi<j:s:mo;-House — First Food, 



shall have acquired strength and caution 

 sufficient to secure themselves. It may 

 indeed be profitable to lose part of a too 

 numerous litter, but accident will not re- 

 spect the quality of the pigs, and the most 

 puny and worthless may escape. None 

 must be saved beyond the number of 

 teats, ■ and upon an average nine is a 

 sufficient number. Would the sow sub- 

 mit quietly, strapping her jaws during 

 the first day and night, with the trouble 

 of releasing her at her meals, would be an 

 effectual security, in case of unnatural vo- 

 raciousness. 



The piGGiNG-HousE should be warm 

 and dry, and secure from the inroads of 

 foxes and other vermin, which have been 

 known to steal sucking pigs from the sleep- 

 ing or absent sow. Short straw is prefer- 

 able for a bed, but in not too great quan- 

 tity, least the pigs be smothered beneath 

 it ; this should be renewed with due re- 

 gard to cleanliness, and as the unwieldy 

 sow is apt to crush her young against the 

 wall, it is proposed in the New Farmer's 



