THE HEADMAN'S JOB 213 



this medicine can be counted on to keep a grow- 

 ing and fattening herd healthy during its nine 

 months of life. 



It is claimed that it is unnatural and artificial 

 to confine these young things within such narrow 

 limits, and so it is ; but the whole scheme is 

 unnatural, if you please. The pig is born to die, 

 and to die quickly, for the profit and mainten- 

 ance of man. What could be more unnatural ? 

 Would he be better reconciled to his fate after 

 spending his nine months between field and sty ? 

 I wot not. The Chester White is an indolent 

 fellow, and I suspect he loves his comfortable 

 house, his cool stone porch, his back yard to dig 

 in, his neighbors across the wire fence to gossip 

 with, and his well-balanced, well-cooked food 

 served under his own nose three times a day. 

 At least he looks content in his piggery, and 

 grows faster and puts on more flesh in his 

 250 days than does his neighbor of the field. 

 If the hog's profitable life were twice or 

 thrice as long, I would advocate a wider lib- 

 erty for the early part of it ; but as it doesn't 

 pay to keep the animal after he is nine months 

 old, the quickest way to bring him to perfection 

 is the best. One cannot afford to graze animals 

 of any kind when one is trying to do intensive 

 farming. It is indirect, it is wasteful of space 

 and energy, and it doesn't force the highest 

 product. Grazing, as compared with soiling, 

 may be economical of labor, but as I understand 



