230 EVERY MAN HIS OWN FARRIER 



In fattening for bacon and flitches the larger breerJs 

 are chosen ; and in breweries, distilleries, oileries, and 

 dairies, fed on grains, oil-cake, and milk ; but where 

 arable farmers keep swine of this description, as is the 

 practice in some of the western counties, the method 

 is to rear chiefly on raw potatoes and Swedish turnips, 

 and to fatten on these roots, boiled or prepared by 

 steam, with a mixture of oat, barley, or bean and pea- 

 meal. Their troughs should often be replenished with 

 a small quantity of food at a time, and kept always 

 clean ; and their food changed occasionally, and 

 seasoned with salt. If proper care be taken, says a 

 late writer, a feeding pig should not consume more 

 than six Winchester bushels of oats made into meal. 

 It ought to be shelled before it is ground, the same as 

 for family use, but need not be sifted. 



In fattening sucking pigs all that is requisite is to keep 

 the mother well lodged and nourished. Weaned pigs 

 when to be fattened are kept constantly on whey, or 

 skimmed or butter-milk, with frequently an addition 

 of peas or beans, or barley-meal. Such good keeping 

 not only makes them increase rapidly in size, but ren- 

 ders them fit for the butcher at an early age. Swine 

 are sold to the butcher at different ages, and under dif- 

 ferent names ; as pigs when a few weeks old ; as 

 porkers at the age of five or six months ; and as full 

 grown hogs at from eighteen months to two years old. 

 The young pigs are commonly roasted whole ; the por- 

 kers are used as fresh or pickled pork ; and the full 

 grown hogs are for the most part converted into ham 

 and bacon. The demand for porkers, which for Lon- 

 don in particular is very great, and which continues 

 almost throughout the year, is chiefly supplied from 

 the dairies within reach of that metropolis. 



