No. 4.] SWINE BREEDING AND FEEDING. 205 



cleanly animals. Still he is called "a dirty hog," but it is 

 dirty man that made him dirty. 



I said before, that I allow my pigs to nurse three months. 

 Some of them will wean themselves. That is why I turn 

 my sows to the clover field. Those sows that have not 

 proved good mothers are selected out, and they must go to 

 the shambles ; but those that have proved good mothers, I 

 retain until they will breed no longer, — generally until the 

 age of five or six years. Those that are to be retained for 

 breeders remain on the clover, and get two ears of corn a 

 day ; and that is all the food they receive until September, 

 when I begin gradually to feed them up for the work of 

 another year. Now, there are men who will say, "I want 

 two litters a year." Truly, man's greed is great, but he 

 forgets all the time that he is hurting himself. I do not cal- 

 culate to do so. There is another man who will say, " Arti- 

 ficial conditions change nature's course." They do not, a 

 particle. The sow whose pigs are weaned at four weeks of 

 acre loses her milking functions as much as a heifer that is 

 dried up after a short period of milking ; but, when she 

 suckles her litter until they are three months old, she be- 

 comes a more intense milker from year to year. On my 

 farm, where I keep but few cows, I rely largely upon the 

 milk of the dam. When weaning time comes my peas are 

 getting ripe. I have changed my movable fences during 

 the season, and these pigs have had constantly a new, 

 fresh clover bed to go on. Now here comes another 

 change of feed. I commence cutting the peas with a 

 scythe, and feed them over the fence ; and I do this myself. 

 When the pigs are used to them, in five or six days, I make 

 a small cut in the fence, and let the little pigs go in and 

 help themselves. This may seem to you a wasteful way of 

 feeding, if you never tried it ; but you will find that it is a 

 very economical way. The little fellows will commence at 

 one end of the field and methodically work downwards 

 through it. They will not run through that field of two 

 acres and tread or tear it down, but they will methodically 

 feed it all. I do not think there is a bushel of peas lost, 

 and they eat the foliage greedily. Now, if there is ever a 

 time when pigs will grow, it is the time when they get this 



