90 



Mr, Phinney^s Pigs and Piggery. 



Vol. IY. 



The latter from two hundred and fifty to 

 three hundred and fifty pounds. 



An mquiry is often made as to the best 

 time of killing-, or at what age it is most pro- 

 fitable to slaughter them. On a large farm 

 where much green herbage is produced and 

 where the value of the manure is taken into 

 the account, 1 consider the pigs killed at the 

 age of fifteen and sixteen months as giving 

 the greate^ profit. When it is intended to 

 kill them at this age, they may be kept on 

 more ordinary and cheaper food for the first 

 ten or twelve months, or till within four or 

 five months of the time of killing. The 

 manure they make and the e.xtra weight of 

 pork more than pay the expense incurred in 

 keeping them the longer time ; but the spring 

 pigs which are to be killed the ensuing win- 

 ter and spring, must be kept upon the best 

 of food from the time they are taken from the 

 sow until they are slaughtered. 



The older class of pigs for the first ten or 

 twelve months, are kept principally upon 

 brewers' grains, with a small quantity of In- 

 dian or barley meal, or rice, ruta baga, sugar 

 beet, &.C., and in the season of clover, peas, 

 oats, cornstalks, weeds, &.C., they are cut 

 green and thrown into the pens; the next 

 lour or five months before killing, they have 

 as much Indian meal, barley meal or rice, 

 with an equal quantity of potatoes, apples or 

 pumpkins as tliey will eat, the whole being 

 well cooked and salted, and given to them 

 about blood warm. During tlie season of 

 fattening, an ear or two of hard corn is every 

 day given to each pig. This small quantity 

 they will digest well, and of course there is 

 no waste. ""Shelled com soaked in water 

 made as salt as the water of the ocean, for 

 forty-eight hours, with a quart of wood ashes 

 added to each bushel, and given to them in 

 small quantities, greatly promotes their health 

 and growth. Their health and appetite is 

 also greatly promoted by throwing a handftil 

 of charcoal once or twice a week into each 

 of their pens. Their principal food should, 

 however, be cooked as thoroughly and as 

 nicely as if intended for table use. From 

 long practice and repeated experiments, I am 

 con'vinced that two dollars worth of material 

 well cooked, wiii make as nuich pork as three 

 dollars worth of the same material given in a 

 raw state. 



Pigs when first taken from the sow sliould 

 be treated with great care, to prevent scour- 

 ing and from becoming stinted; when either 

 of these happen, it will rcipiire many days 

 and sometimes weeks, to put them ngain into 

 a healthy, growing condition. When first 

 deprived of tlic maternal foo:l, a little new or 

 skim milk, boiled and slightly salted, and 

 o-iven to them often and in small (luantities, 

 will prevent scouring and greatly promote 



their growth. If intended for killing at the 

 age of nine or ten months, they should be full 

 fed all the time and kept as fat as possible. 

 If on the other hand they are intended for 

 killing at the age of fifteen or eighteen 

 months, they should not be full fed, nor be 

 made very fat for the first ten or twelve 

 months. 



To satisfy myself of the benefit of this 

 course, I took six of my best pigs eight weeks 

 old, all of the same litter, and shut them in 

 two pens, three in each. Three of these I 

 fed very high and kept them as fat all the 

 time as they could be made. The other thrt e 

 were fed sparingly, upon coarse food, but kept 

 in a healthy growing condition, till within 

 tour or five months of the time of killing, 

 when they were fed as high as the others. 

 They were all slaughtered at the same time, 

 being then sixteen months old. At the age 

 of nine months the full fed pigs were much 

 the heaviest, but at the time of killing, the 

 pigs fed sparingly for the first ten or twelve 

 months, weighed, upon an average, fifty 

 pounds each more than the others. Besides 

 this additional weight of pork, the three " lean 

 kine" added much more than the others to 

 my manure heap. These results would seem 

 very obvious to any one who has noticed the 

 habits of the animal. In consequence of short 

 feeding they were much more active and 

 industrious in the manufacture of compost, 

 and this activity at the same time caused the 

 muscles to enlarge and the frame to spread, 

 while the very fat pigs became inactive, and, 

 like indolent bipeds, they neither worked for 

 their own benefit nor for that of others. 



For the purpose of increasing my manure 

 heap, my pens are kept constantly supplied 

 with peat or swamp mud, about three hun- 

 dred loads of which are annually thrown into 

 my styes. This, with the manure from my 

 horse stable, which is daily thrown in, and 

 the weeds and coarse herbage which are 

 gathered from the farm, give me about five 

 hundred cart loads of manure in a year. 



On regular and systematic feedingand clean 

 and dry beddmg, the success of raising en 1 

 tiittening swine very much depends. A faitli- 

 ful feeder, also, who has some skill and tasti\ 

 and withal a little pride of vocation, is indis- 

 pensable. Homer informs us that much of 

 the success of Ulysses in rearing his fine hogs, 

 was to be attributed to his faithful Umeus, 

 whom the old soldier styled (Jm; cyfa-TJic) god- 

 like swine-feeder. 



The annexed is a rough plan, which mriy 

 serve to give you an idea of the compact 

 mnnner in vvhicli my hogs, are kept. It is 

 intended for a plan ot the upper story and one 

 end. The lower story corresponds with the 

 upper, except that the promenade is extended 



