PIG-FEEDING 261 



meat-making machine at the farmer's disposal." It is 

 a somewhat despised animal, because it readily accepts 

 scraps of meat from the house, or, in some cases, the 

 leavings of the well-fed bullock ; but when properly 

 fed and housed the pig supplies the finest bacon, which 

 is so indispensable on the English breakfast table. 



On many farms there are so-called " bare periods," 

 when there is little to sell. If, however, pigs are kept, 

 it is possible to arrange matters so as to have a number 

 of porkers or bacon pigs to sell at such times, which 

 will largely overcome this difficulty. 



Pigs also come in very handy for consuming and 

 turning to profitable account the by-products of the 

 dairy skim milk, buttermilk, whey, house wash, etc. as 

 well as " brown " and small potatoes from the farm 

 which have little commercial value. Tail oats, wheat, 

 or barley can also be very profitably utilised for pig- 

 feeding. 



The first essential for winter pig-feeding is a 

 comfortable house. The so-called " pig cot " is 

 generally cold, wet, and dirty ; in fact, a most unsatis- 

 factory house for a pig. The best house is a small 

 horse-box, which is warmer and much cleaner than the 

 pig cot; pigs thrive better in it, and the box when 

 empty can be utilised for all classes of stock. 



The economy of keeping pigs in warm, comfortable 

 boxes in winter is well emphasised by experiments 

 conducted by Grisdale at the Ottawa Experiment Station, 

 with pigs weighing on an average about 70 Ibs. live 

 weight. One lot was kept for sixty days during winter 

 housed in ordinary wooden cabins, while the other lot 

 was kept in the much warmer and more comfortable 

 piggery at the Experiment Station. Both lots of pigs 

 made approximately the same live weight increase, but 



