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a handful of charcoal once or twice a week into each of their 

 pens. Their principal food should, however, be cooked thor- 

 oughly and nicely. From long practice and repeated experi- 

 ments, I am convinced that two dollars' worth of material well 

 cooked, will make as much pork as three dollars' worth of the 

 same material given in a raw state. 



" Pigs when first taken from the sow should be treated with 

 great care, to prevent them from scouring and becoming stinted ; 

 when either of these happen, it will require many days and 

 sometimes weeks to put them again into a healthy, growing 

 condition. When first deprived of the maternal food, a little 

 new or skim milk, boiled and slightly salted and given to them 

 often and in small quantities, will prevent scouring and greatly 

 promote their growth. If intended for killing at the age of 9 

 or 10 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 15 or 18 months, they should not be full- 

 fed, nor be made very fat for the first 10 or 12 months. 



" To satisfy myself of the benefit of this course, 1 took 6 of 

 my best pigs 8 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 three were fed sparingly, upon coarse food, but kept in a 

 healthy, growing condition, till within 4 or 5 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 16 

 months old. At the age of 9 months the full-fed pigs were 

 much the heaviest, but at the time of killing, the pigs fed spar- 

 ingly for the first 10 or 12 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 activ- 

 ity at the same time caused the muscles to enlarge and the 



