SHEEP, SWINE, AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 447 



should be changed twice daily until inflammation is over. An 

 oiled or greased cloth, over the place will be all that is required 

 after this. 



Hogs fill an important place in our plan of mixed hus- 

 bandry, because they will convert into manure and pork much 

 that would otherwise be unconsumed. But few farmers at the 

 East raise as much* pork as they might with profit, and the 

 markets are supplied with Western pork. The reason why 

 they do not make it pay is, that they do not manage right with 

 their hogs. In the first place, there is no use in feeding a long, 

 thin, slab-sided breed of pigs, even if they are given to you. 

 Get a good sow of some first rate breed, or else breed the best 

 common sow you can find to a thoioughbred boar and raise a 

 good breeding sow. Manage so as to have two litters, one early 

 in the season, and the other long enough before winter to have 

 them get well agoing. Good pigs are always in demand, and it 

 is just as easy to get six to ten good pigs as the same number 

 of poor runts that will never fat. And the same amount of 

 food fed to a good pig will m^ake twite as much meat as to the 

 other. The only difference in expense is the first cost of the 

 boar or sow, and one litter of pigs will pay all the differ ence in 

 expense between a pure bred Chester, Suffolk, or Berkshire, and 

 the lank specimens oidinarily used for breediug. 



"What is the Best Breed ? is a question often asked ; but 

 there are several so good that it is difficult to answer. Where 

 the " Chester White" is known, no other breed can compete 

 with it. It is, according to our notion, nearer perfection as a 

 hog than has ever before been arrived at. Its outline is beauti- 

 ful, its disposition gentle, its habits quiet and contented — not 

 disposed to roam and fret, so that the food it consumes goes to 

 the formation of flesh, and is not spent in running after mischief. 

 It is not a gross feeder, but, like all other animals, requires its 



