588 MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY 



day, at least, and, besides, a good supply of vegetable 

 substances, such as cabbages, carrots, or potatoes ; 

 and when they are nursing their young, they should 

 have a still larger supply of food, to keep up that 

 secretion of milk so essentially necessary for the 

 supply of such a numerous progeny. 



Pigs may be weaned when about eight weeks old, 

 and separated from the sow. She should be shut up 

 by herself for a week or so, and well fed, to restore 

 what she has lost in suckling her young. She will 

 very soon after this manifest a desire to take the 

 boar. 



The times at which hogs are fattened, are twice 

 a year, namely, beginning in October, for the winter, 

 and February or March for the spring-time. Where 

 skimmed-milk can be spared, it will be found the best 

 liquid, and mixed with ground oats, barley-meal, pea- 

 meal, or bean-meal, as also pollard ; these may be 

 given combined, with great advantage. Indeed, it is 

 better to neutralise the heating effects of pea and 

 bean-meal, by a mixture of some of the other farina- 

 ceous bodies. Malted barley has also been given 

 to pigs while fattening, with considerable success. 

 Potatoes and carrots boiled, mixed with skimmed 

 or butter-milk, and even whey, prove an excellent 

 variety for inducing an increase of substance in the 

 animals. The refuse of the brewhouse and distillery 

 are also found to be beneficial in fattening swine, 

 with other farinaceous substances mixed in them. 



From the contumacious and unruly nature of hogs, 

 there is great difficulty, if not an utter impossibility, 

 of performing operations on them, as with other 

 animals, and consequently little progress has been 

 made in the application of the veterinary art to these 

 animals. The ordinary methods, of cutting off part 



