66 NOTES ON FIELDS AND CATTLE. 



is well repaid, as you may so save a whole litter, 

 three-fourths of which, if left with her, the chances 

 are you may find with their tongues out " done to 

 death " within twenty-four hours after birth. As 

 soon as they are .pretty strong upon their legs and 

 can expostulate lustily, you may leave them in the 

 fenced sty with mamma altogether, having taken 

 care first to initiate them into the secret of their 

 harbour. All this a savage mother will not allow ; 

 nay, often she will devour her offspring if meddled 

 with at all. 



As a preventive against this awkward finale, a wash 

 of aloes and water, into which the piglings are dipped 

 just newly farrowed, has been used. A " fond parent " 

 of this sort, it will pay you best, however, to fatten 

 and consume in turn. Gentle sows are sufficiently 

 attainable to permit the immediate sacrifice of a 

 savage. If the wee ones be ailing, a hot bath for 

 them) and a dose of castor oil to the mother, of which 

 they will enjoy a reversion through her milk, is safe 

 and usually successful treatment. That the sow will 

 require warm food, gruel, &c, after her labour, and 

 must be carefully tended for some days, it is almost 

 superfluous to remark. Indeed, unless the tyro have 

 servants about his stock who of themselves will 

 exercise such ordinary thought, he will have a very 

 mountain to surmount. I may notice only that boiled 

 beans promote especially the flow of milk, and that 

 for those sows which litter in autumn, lettuces are 

 the most wholesome and juiciest of food. 



Towards weaning time turn out the sow occasion- 

 ally by herself, and accustom the nursery to take 



