FP.EDIKG.] 



PIGS, 



[feeding. 



is over, the stubbles are a very valuable aux- 

 iliary. When these are finished, the pigs 

 should at once be put up to feed ; and at first 

 a large quantity of roots may be given. It is 

 a great satisfaction, then, that diseased pota- 

 toes will not only have no injurious tendency 

 on either the live animal or its bacon, but will 

 be almost, if not altogether, as fattening as 

 when they are sound. Hence the value of a 

 stock of pigs. As the feeding progresses, 

 barley or oatmeal should be given in increasing 

 proportions ; and, as the process becomes more 

 nearly completed, the whole of the roots may 

 be abstracted with advantage. 



When the pig gets too heavy to stand, in 

 the west of Yorkshire they give him oatmeal 

 balls, made just dry enough to hold together; 

 and the display by the porcine tun-bellied 

 mammoth, as he lies, eats, and sleeps, with the 

 evident satisfaction he evinces, shows that they 

 are no bad j udges of his appetite. Boiling and 

 steaming the food is absolutely essential to 

 pigs. Their digestive powers being by no 

 means strong, they partake of the sluggishness 

 of their general organism. Hence they must 

 have their roots broken down by steam or 

 boiling, and their grain not merely crushed, 

 but absolutely made into flour. 



Position, circumstances, and price, will often 

 decide the kind of food given to pigs ; and those 

 who make pig-feeding a business, and conse- 

 quently keep a number of them, should so 

 manage as to be enabled to provide for their 

 maintenance and fattening from the produce 

 of their crops. "They should therefore cul- 

 tivate, for pig-feeding, beans, peas, barley, 

 buck-wheat, potatoes, flax, parsnips, carrots, 

 lettuce, lucerne, rye-grass, Italian clover, rape, 

 chicory, and vetches ; they should also sow 

 thistle — which is a most nutritious article of 

 diet for pigs ; but so much neglected, that it is, 

 as yet, scarcely ever to be met with in a state 

 of cultivation, or in any condition but that of 

 a weed. Nor ought we to forget a most im- 

 portant article of porcine dietary — namely, 

 mangel and Swedish turnips." 



" Until this last year," says an anonymous 

 writer in the Farmer's Gazette, " I was in the 

 habit of giving them steamed potatoes, with a 

 portion of broken corn, and now and then 

 bean- meal. The latter article I have used 

 very little, as beans are seldom grown in mv 

 780 



district, except by the landed proprietors, and 

 a few extensive farmers. I resolved this year 

 to try, for experiment, if pigs could be fat- 

 tened on Swedish turnips ; and am happy to 

 say, at present, my herd are fattening as well 

 as they were this time last year, when they 

 were consuming a great quantity of potatoes. 

 Hay being so scarce this year on my small 

 farm, I should have been obliged to buy a con- 

 siderable quantity, had I not changed my 

 mode of feeding. The potatoes my pigs ate 

 last year, I am able to give to my horses and 

 cows, thereby saving my hay ; and I have no 

 doubt but pigs can be fattened as well, though 

 not, perhaps, as quickly, on steamed Swedish 

 turnips. I give them as much as they can eat 

 of the turnips, mixed with a little broken corn 

 and wheat chaff", with about a pint of buttermilk 

 to every three pigs ; and I have every reason to 

 expect, judging from their present improve- 

 ment, that they will be ready for market about 

 a fortnight later than I had them last year, 

 and at, at most, one-half the expense. I bought 

 them in the beginning of December, for about 

 £2 a-head ; and, if they continue to improve 

 as they are doing, I have no doubt but they 

 will average from 4 to 4-2- cwt. at Christ- 

 mas," &c. 



Eice is, also, an important article used in 

 porcine dietary. An amateur pig-breeder 

 says — " We purchased from the government 

 stores several tons of damaged rice at a very 

 cheap rate ; with this we fattened our pigs ; 

 and such pork I never saw before or since. 

 The fat was as firm and solid as the lean, and 

 the flavour of the meat very superior. The 

 way in which the rice was prepared as food 

 was as follows : — My copper held forty gallons ; 

 in the afternoon it was filled, or nearly so, 

 with water ; as soon as the water boiled, the 

 fire was raked out, two pails of rice immersed 

 in the vrater, and the whole covered close 

 down, and left to stand until the morning. 

 On the following day tlie copper was emptied 

 of its contents, which consisted of a thick jelly, 

 so firm as only to be taken out with a shovel ; 

 and on those contents the pigs were fed. The 

 effect was perfect. As to the economy of the 

 plan, that, of course, must be a matter depen- 

 dent upon circumstances; we louud it more 

 profitable than almost any other kind ot food 

 we could have given, from the price at which 



