TATTENING.] 



PIGS, 



[fa-ttenifg. 



once daily, whicli might consist of peas or 

 beans. Swedish turnips, carrots, parsnips, or 

 tlie like, either well boiled or raw, may be 

 given ; but a preference should be shown for 

 the food alicays boiled, or, what is better, 

 steamed. Some wean the pigs within a few 

 hours after birth. It can hardly be conceived 

 under what circumstance this may be found 

 advantageous. The best mode of management 

 is clearly to turn the boar into the hog-yard 

 a month or two after parturition, at which 

 time it is proper to remove the sows for a few 

 hours daily from their young, and let them 

 accept his overtures when they please. It 

 does not injure either the sow or her young if 

 she take the boar while suckling ; but some 

 sows will not do so until the cessation of their 

 milk; and this is much more natural. At 

 weaning-time the young pigs may be rung. 

 After about five weeks' high and careful feed- 

 ing, subsequent to weaning, the young pigs 

 may be put up for stores, porkers, &c., accord- 

 ing to the owner's views respecting them. 

 Very young pigs, indeed, immediately after 

 being weaned, if fed on the refuse of a dairy, 

 can be brought up for delicious pork in five or 

 six weeks ; for the last week, prior to killing, 

 the addition of beans, peas, or bruised corn, 

 will impart a degree of firmness to the flesh, 

 which is considered an improvement. This is 

 called "dairy-fed pork," and it never fails to 

 fetch an enhanced price, thereby amply remu- 

 nerating the producer." 



"When pigs are intended for pork, they should 

 not be so highly fattened as those which are des- 

 tined for bacon. This should especially be the 

 case with such animals as are designed for 

 home consumption, or, in other words, domes- 

 tic purposes. To the feeder whose object is 

 to sell, however, a different line must be pur- 

 sued. What he wants is fat, because fat 

 produces weight, and weight yields profit. It is 

 questionable, however, even whether he should 

 feed the animals till they attain the enormous 

 state of obesity to which we see them brought 

 and exhibited for sale. "There is," says 

 Ilurtrel D'Arboval, " no animal so liable to 

 become over-fat as the pig, and especially the 

 Chinese and Siamese swine. Naturally in- 

 clined to corpulence and gluttony, they easily 

 acquire an enormous bulk ; and when fat has 

 once begun to accumulate, the animal eats 

 778 



little, breathes with difiiculty, becomes inert, 

 unable to sustain its own weight, and deficient 

 in sensation. "We have seen wretched pigs 

 so fat that they wei'e obliged to be lifted or 

 dragged out of the sty whenever it was neces- 

 sary to move them. We have, also, made in- 

 cisions in their buttocks, and even taken off por- 

 tions of skin from their backs, without their 

 betraying any sense of pain. We saw a hog 

 that had lain for a considerable period on one 

 side, too powerless or too inert to shift its 

 position ; and when it was raised, a large hole 

 was perceived in that part of the back which 

 had been undermost. This had been made by 

 rats feeding and gnawing into the fat of the 

 beast, evidently without its being in the least 

 conscious of their proceedings." When fat- 

 tening pigs for bacon, they should be kept by 

 themselves, as they require no liberty. Their 

 sties, however, should be kept nice and dry, 

 and clean ; whilst, in order to bring them into 

 the condition required for the knife, they 

 should be abundantly fed. It seems almost 

 ridiculous to talk of the cleanly comforts which 

 ought to be extended to the pig ; but if its 

 accommodation be not attended to in every 

 way to make it feel comfortable, it will not 

 thrive so fast or so well as it would otherwise 

 do. Whilst speaking of pigs being fattened 

 for bacon, Parkinson says, that when he lived 

 with his father, acorns were so plentiful in the 

 woods one year, that they made the pigs 

 sufiiciently fat for bacon without any other 

 food. The flesh was equally good, and as well 

 flavoured as that of other animals which had 

 been fed on beans and peas. In the United 

 States, when apples and pumpkins are abun- 

 dant, the swine are fed on these fruits, which 

 are considered excellent for them. A breeder 

 says on this subject, that on the lOfch oi 

 October, twenty swine were put up to fatten, 

 all of which were only in middling store order, 

 in consequence of the scarcity of food. The 

 covrs producing very little wash from the 

 dairy, and the crops of apples being scanty 

 this season, they had only, during summer, 

 the free range of a small orchard containing 

 an acre and a-half of land — with the premature 

 apples which fell — in which was a pond of 

 water ; a very essential requisite to hogs, and 

 one to which, under the powerful influence of 

 the sun, they will resort for their chief 



