SWINE— CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 



231 



must arrive fully at maturity before it can 

 be easily fattened. And an April pig can 

 be kept till a year from the following Jan- 

 uary at less expense and trouble than a 

 September pig. While suckling the sow 

 should have free access to grass, and 

 should have a generous supply of tolera- 

 bly rich slop, and if fed in a trough easy 

 of access, the young porkers will soon 

 learn to feed with her with decided bene- 

 fit to themselves and the mother. At 

 eight weeks old they should be weaned — 

 and if they have learned to eat with the 

 mother and are fed milk or dairy slop 

 with a generous supply of fine bran or 

 coarse meal they will not fall off, but will 

 continue growing without interruption. 



A growing pig should never be fed 

 corn to any amount, it contains too much 

 oil and does not contain elements of 

 growth; light grain, bran and shorts, 

 with a good supply of grass and succu- 

 lent vegetables, should constitute their 

 food. After weaning, a pig should never 

 be made extremely fat, it checks the 

 growth and injures their thrift afterwards; 

 nor should they be permitted to be- 

 come poor — a poor pig can never be 

 made to attain the size or form it would 

 have done had it never been stopped in 

 its growth — like a hill of corn, if it once 

 becomes feeble and sickly, no after cul- 

 ture can atone for the injury done. A 

 mangy pig is worthless and should be 

 consigned to the golgotha where the dead 

 animals of the farm are deposited. 



Neat, cleanly and well sheltered accom- 

 modation should be provided for swine, 

 especially during the season of growth — 

 the hog has been much slandered in rela- 

 tion to his uncleanly habits — in some re- 

 spect the hog is more cleanly than the 

 cow or the horse or most domestic ani- 

 mals. It is true, like the elephant and 

 other pachyderms, he is fond of bathing, 

 a cleanly habit, and it is more the fault 

 of his keeper than his own that he wal- 

 lows in mud when better accommoda- 

 tions are not accessible. But if young 

 pigs have to lie in a damp and dirty bed, 

 their skin soon becomes encrusted with 

 scurf, the ears and tail frequently drop 

 off, and the growth is at once arrested. 

 During the entire rearing to the term of 

 fattening, the animal should be kept in a 

 sleek, healthy and growing condition. 



The natural instincts of every animal 



must be consulted and followed to pro- 

 duce the best results when domesticated. 



The hog is impatient of both heat and 

 cold; any unusual exertion during the 

 heat of summer, especially if in full flesh, 

 will frequently cost him his life; comfortable 

 shade should always be provided, conve- 

 nient of access, such as will protect them 

 from the noonday heats of the summer 

 sun ; neglect of this is inexcusable cruel- 

 ty, and will be a serious drawback from 

 the credit side of the pork account. 



Equally important is ample protection 

 from the opposite extreme of the winter 

 cold. Pigs dropped in the fall are unfit, 

 with all the care that can or will be giv- 

 en by our common farm accommodations, 

 to pass uninjured the severity of the win- 

 ter season. Early spring pigs will do 

 much better, but a well covered, well 

 protected and well littered sty where the 

 pigs will not lie more than one deep, 

 and when the owner will not have the 

 nightmare from listening to their unearth- 

 ly screams from suffering from the biting 

 cold, is essential to successful pork raising. 

 And we do not believe that any good 

 Christian can say his prayers and sleep 

 easily and quietly while the whole neigh- 

 borhood is made vocal by the cries of his 

 freezing pigs. 



During the cold season, a proportion 

 ofcornasfood is not objectionable. It 

 is well calculated to keep up the animal 

 heat, and from the care and convenience 

 of feeding, it is now, and doubtless will 

 continue to be, the principal food at that 

 season. Yet the best results will not follow 

 when most of the coarser grains with bran 

 made into slop, and refuse apples, pota- 

 toes, or other roots or green food, consti- 

 tute the diet. 



Dry grain of any kind is not the best 

 feed, and for this reason the hogs that fol- 

 low beef cattle highly fed with corn do 

 better than when they receive the corn 

 directly from the crib. 



During the summer, before fattening, a 

 clover or timothy pasture is indispensable 

 to successful fattening, and to economical 

 production of pork — and the next best 

 course is soiling with clover, timothy, or 

 other succulent grasses or vegetables. 

 Confinement in small pens, and heavy 

 feeding with corn, is the most expensive, 

 as well as the least successful preparation 

 for fattening in the fall that can well be 



