742 Live Stock. Szeine Methods of fattening of* 



tries it once will not be apt to change it for the common methods.&quot; It is added that 

 * f pea-foup is an excellent food for hogs, and may, though he has not fufficiently 

 compared them, equal the above, efpecially if given in winter, milk warm. 1 But 

 wherever food is prepared by heat, the expenfes of fuel and labour are a great draw 

 back on the profits of the fyftem. It mould therefore be well confidered before it 

 is undertaken. But in whatever way the food be given, great care mould be taken 

 that the hogs have a full allowance at fufficiently fhort intervals to keep them con- 

 fhntly in a (late of reit, as it is on this principle that they become fat in an expe 

 ditious manner. It is a fact frequently obferved in fattening hogs, that they pay 

 better for their keep in the latter part of their fattening than in the former ; which 

 probably arifes in fome meafure .from their not being fed in a fufficiently full man 

 ner, or with fufficient frequency in the beginning, fo as to keep them in a ftateof 

 ie.fr. 



The length of lime that is necefTary in fattening thefe animals mutt vary much 

 according to the ftate in which they are put up, their iizes, and the differences in 

 their difpofitions to fatten, but in general from five or fix weeks to two or three 

 months is fufficient, 



In the time of fattening it is likewife of great importance to keep the hogs clean 

 and warm, by having them frequently well littered down, as by this means they not 

 only fatten more quickly, but the molt manure poflible k raifed. The advantage 

 of warm flies, with warm food in cold weather, has been found very confidera- 

 bJe, 



It is the befr method to have the pigs caftrated while young. The male pigs 

 are ufually gelded at about three weeks old without danger, and the female ones 

 may be cut or fpayed when a month old ; though, in the latter cafe, the operation is 

 frequently performed at a much later period. The fows, when not wanted for the 

 purpofe of breeding, may alfo be fpayed : this bufmefs is moftly done by perfons 

 who are in the conftant practice of it. 



It is abfolutely neceffary to keep all forts of fwine conilantly well ringed, in or 

 der that they may lie quietly in the fties, and of courfe thrive better. 



A great miftake feems to have been committed by farmers in the management 

 of hogs, from the fuppofition that they can only be kept with profit in fo far as 

 they may confume the materials that would otherwife be wafted. There cannot, 

 however, be any doubt but that fwine will pay for their keep as well as any other 

 fort of live ftock, where a judicious fyftem of cultivating crops purpofely for them 



