FEEDING 379 



that the one opening shall be on the lee side, to secure 

 warmth. 



Feeding. After weaning, which should be done gradu- 

 ally, as before described, pigs can be fed for months on sour 

 whey as the only food, and do fairly well. As milk in a sweet 

 condition induces constipation, any skim-milk used should 

 also be soured by being put into a tank or barrel tainted with 

 the natural acidity which arises in a vessel left unwashed 

 after containing milk. It pays well, while feeding with these 

 or with buttermilk, to thicken the food, which by itself is 

 too liquid, with meal, raw or steamed. A mixture of meal is 

 best, and may contain beans, peas, gram, lentils, vetches, 

 wheat (including bran, germs, and pollards), barley, oats, 

 maize, or Indiana the refuse from corn-flour works, viz., 

 the outside or most nutritious part of the grain. The 

 selection should depend on what possible ingredients are 

 cheapest in the market at the time. Small and inferior 

 grain is usually selected. Oatmeal is preferable for the 

 feeding of show pigs. Costiveness is avoided by mixing 

 bran with the food. The dung of a thriving pig should be 

 soft and unformed. Roots are also frequently given, such 

 as mangels, turnips, carrots, parsnips, as well as small 

 potatoes and cabbages. Roots are best given uncooked, 

 even to fatteners ; but raw potatoes ought never to be given 

 to a pig of any kind. A little common salt is a necessary 

 seasoning in cooked food. " Fallen " flesh (as that of a horse 

 or other animal of the farm) strengthens the boiled mixture 

 and improves its flavour; but if too much flesh be used (as 

 at a slaughter-house), or if the other foods are given without 

 enough of meal, the pork will be soft and inferior. Legumin- 

 ous seeds, particularly, solidify the flesh. Maize consumed 

 alone is in this country an unthrifty food-stuff, although when 

 cheap it forms a suitable ingredient in a complex meal- 

 mixture. Cooked food should be given slightly sour and 

 cool, but not cold. Many breeders disapprove of boiling or 

 steaming meal, and prefer to give it soaked for some hours in 

 cold water. When there is a danger of forcing the pig to 

 consume too much moisture, as while grazing, the meal 

 should be given dry, even at the risk of a little waste. There 

 is little to be gained by wetting meal immediately before 

 use, but the practice of mixing it with pulped roots to lie 



