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either cheese or butter are produced. Outside of these counties comparatively few 

 hogs are reared except near cities and towns which furnish large quantities of kitchen 

 offal. In the cheese sections — the home of the Sof)ttish Chedder — the majority of 

 farmers makes up their milk at home. Each, therefore, makes upon his farm a large 

 quantity of whey, and to consume this he maintains a good stock of feeding swine. 

 As a rule these are not bred upon the farms, but bought in at 3 to 4 months old. 

 Tailless one breeds his own pigs his pens are likely to be empty during the winter 

 months, as the Scots farmer, like many others, does not believe jiigs can be fed 

 profitably without dairy offal, more especially during the cold season of the year. 

 It should be pointed out, hov%-ever, that the average Scots pig pen is not constructed to 

 provide that comfort on which profitable feeding so much depends in cold weather. 



In creamery and cheese factory sections the fattening is chiefly done at the plants. 

 Whereas most of the farm fed hogs are bought as ' stores,' the factory people prefer 

 to rear their own stock, and to this end keep on hand a large number of brood sows. 

 One of the chief reasons given for this course is to avoid getting disease into the stock. 

 In addition they are better assured of well bred and thrifty stock to feed than if their 

 pigs were purchased in the open market. 



The factory sections visited were in the counties of Wigton and Kirkcudbright 

 in the southwest of Scotland. At each of these plants from 500 to 600 pigs are fed 

 each year. Here, as at almost all districts visited, cross-bred pigs are preferred. At 

 Dunragit 75 sows are kept — chiefly pure bred Yorkshire and to these Tamworth, 

 Berkshire and Middle White boars are principally bred. The sows are carefully 

 selected and cared for in such a way as to insure good litters. The sows when dry are 

 carried cheaply on a ration of shorts, Paisley meal (a by-product of starch works much 

 like gluten feed) and roots. The grain feed is given as a thin slop with skim milk or 

 milk and water and sometimes with whey, when cheese is being made instead of butter. 

 An illustration shows a group of dry sows kept in a grass plot at one of the creamer- 

 ies. Two litters a year are reared. These are born chiefly in July and January. The yield 

 per sow is usually about 9 pigs weaned. The July litters were coming at the time of 

 the Commission's visit, and a promising lot of pigs they were. These are carried 

 over winter as stores to go out early the following season, while the January farrow- 

 ings go away towards fall. The sows when milking are liberally fed on slops of mixed 

 foods. A good deal of rice meal is used at times as also a preparation called ' Molas- 

 sine,' consisting of peat moss dried, ground fine and mixed with molasses. Molasses 

 fed without the moss is too laxative, but when properly prepared with the cheap moss 

 meal it constitutes an excellent and cheap food for pigs of all ages. 



The litters are weaned at about six weeks old by which time they have learned 

 to feed well. They are kept housed for two or three weeks after weaning and are fed 

 on warm, cooked food consisting of shorts, barley dust and Paisley meal. Feeding is 

 done three times daily and no more is given each time than is eaten up clean. Very 

 little skim milk or whey is given to young pigs unless in times of a generous supply. 

 These foods are reserved for the fattening stock. When eight or ten weeks old the pigs 

 are turned out. 



During the summer their run is limited to a few acres but in winter fully 50 

 acres are given to a herd of 300 at one creamery. When winter arrives this ground 

 carries considerable grass which the pigs graze all w'inter long. The swine feeder is 

 much averse to keeping store pigs housed in winter as they often get lame when con- 

 fined. They have access to dry comfortable cabins. A group of pigs varying from 8 

 to 12 weeks old is shown in an illustration. These pigs in August were getting slop of 

 mixed grain, finely ground and one small feed each day of the whole soaked corn. They 

 were also getting sour milk and whey to drink. The aim of the feeder is to keep the 

 pigs thriving well all the time. They are not housed until the last six weeks after 

 whichtimethey are rushed along on generous feed consisting chiefly of fairly thick slop 

 made from skim milk, or whey with such meals as barley, corn and other heavy grain. 

 At none of the factories visited are roots fed to fattening stock. These are highly 

 prized for brood sows and store pigs along with shorts, molassine and Paisley meal. 



