CARE OF SWINE. 229 



vide the sows with a warm, dry pen, that will admit the sun- 

 shine. For this purpose 1 huilt a piggery one hunched feet long 

 and twelve feet Avide, floored with two inch lumber, divided 

 into twenty pens. Seven feet of the north side is covered with 

 a roof slanting to the north and open to the south. The sows 

 are put up a week or ten days previous to pigging-, and are kept 

 up until the pigs are old enough to follow, when they may be 

 let out, if the grass is dry and the weather pleasant ; but they 

 should be kept up until the dew is off, to prevent scurvy, a 

 disease frequently mistaken for cholera, and produced by feeding 

 the sow very sour swill or by the succulent condition of the 

 grass daring the prevalence of Spring rains. This disease can 

 be checked by feeding the sow threshed oats and giving astrin- 

 gents in slops, made of shorts and bran, that has not been allowed 

 to sour. 



The pens should be kept perfectly clean, and furnished with 

 fresh beds at least twice a week. Pigs can be weaned when 

 two months old. After separating them from the sows they 

 should be given the best of care, and the best food should be 

 provided them. Milk, sweet or sour, and meal, or oats and 

 corn ground together, are excellent, and should be fed regularly 

 three times a day. 



As the pigs grow older, and the weather becomes settled, 

 I give plenty of range and exercise, feeding with shelled and 

 soaked corn until the corn is sufficiently matured to feed with- 

 out waste. I then fence off a part of the field, usually about 

 one acre to every ten hogs, keeping a trough containing equal 

 parts of ashes, salt, and lime, with an occasional supply of coal 

 screenings. I market Spring pigs at eight to ten months of 

 age to give room for the Summer pigs. I allow the sows to 

 run on new corn, as they will thus make a fine growth during 

 pleasant weather. Provided with good shelter and soft feed, 

 they can be taken through the Winter in good shape. My hog3 

 make a good growth on clover, the following Summer, and go 

 into market in the Fall, after having eaten a field of early. corn, 

 planted for their especial benefit. It is true that the other 

 grasses will accomplish somewhat similar results, but I con- 



