24 DOMESTIC ANIMiVLS. [Chap. 1. 



incal to convert into manure tlirongh the piff-peu manufactory. Tlie next 

 j)araj.'r,iiili i> to tlie point in this connection, of feeding pigs to make manure. 

 4. Working PiffS. — "We once reconiinendcd farmers to make their pigs 

 working animals. To tliis a writer in an agricultural paper objected ; be- 

 cause, as he alleges, tiie same amount of finnl consumed by an idle hog will 

 make 12 pounds of pork as easily as it will make S pounds if the animal is 

 allowed to exercise his natural propensity to root. In this we entirely agree, 

 and have often contended that when a hog is shut up to fatten, if he was 

 confined in a slip so narrow that he could not turn round, having one side 

 of his narrow prison made so as to be moved out as he increased in bulk, he 

 would fatten faster than in any other position. Xow, will the wi-itcr, who 

 thinks that we difier from him in oitiiiinn, read over again the arti(de that he 

 criticises, and see that it is the pig-pen, and not the tatting-hog pen, that 

 we were talking about. Our facts are not intended to be elaborated into 

 proofs and arguments for farmers, but rather as texts for thiidving men to 

 think over and reason ujion M'ith themselves and neighbors. Our opinion is, 

 tiuit all the swine family should be kept imprisoned, if not in close pens, 

 certainly in strongly fenced lots ; and in all the Eastern States, where manure 

 is so valuable, it is very doubtful whether a farmer can afford to let any of 

 the family out of the pen — which, as we before liinted, should be a great 

 manure manufactory — except, perhaps, for a short season to eat clover, peas, 

 or glean a stnbblc-lield. If there is a greater neighborhood miisance than 

 hogs in the highway, we have jxt to find it out; and as we would always 

 keep " Mr. Pi^" in the pen, we recommended to make him work in the 

 manufactory, furnishing a jiart of the materials to be worked, and the farmer 

 the renuiinder. In his immediate preparation for death we don't care how 

 idly he spends the last of his days. As long as farmei-s will jicrsi.st in 

 making the llesh of swine their leading article of food, we shall contend 

 that the flesh of an animal that has worked his way up to a mature age, and 

 is then fattened ready for slaughter, will make more healthy food than llie 

 oily fatness of one always kept in a state of obesity and idleness from his 

 birth to death. It is this great physiological tact that causes the flesh of the 

 wild hog to be sought after and eaten with gusto. We fully agree with the 

 orthodoxy of E. M. Brewster, a model farmer of Griswold, Conn., Avho says 

 if he was to fatten a half-dozen hogs upon a flat rock, he would be sure to 

 have two rings in each nose. The latitude that we desire our readers to 

 give to our suggestions is just this : to make a distinction between working 

 and I'attoning animals, and make the pig a useful one. 



" Keeping pigs eighteen months to fatten them the last three is not a 

 paying business. Feed a decent pig well from weaning until eight months 

 old, and you will get 250 lbs. to 300 lbs. of pork, and you do not usually get 

 50 lbs. more for those ten months older. There can be no question but an 

 animal can consume much more to produce in eighteen months about tlie 

 same quantity of meat which is made by another in half that length of 

 feeding. If the object of raising a hog is to make 2yorJc, that end should be 



