28 HABRIS ON THE PIG. 



over-fat ; but show animals are obliged to be fat, or the 

 judges will pass them over. The over-feeding of prize 

 animals is a very great evil, but one that can not be very 

 well remedied. A show of lean breeding animals would 

 be a very lean show indeed in many respects : an exhib- 

 itor must always sacrifice some of his best animals to 

 please the public fancy. I think there is less risk in fat 

 breeding pigs than any other animal. I have had several 

 very fat sows pig, and never lost any. I gave them noth- 

 ing but a very little bran and water a week before pig- 

 ging, and but little after for a week, while I put a little 

 castor oil in their food directly after pigging. I have the 

 greatest trouble in reducing the male animals, as they will 

 nearly hunger to death before they will part with their 

 fat. I generally turn them into a large yard, and give 

 them plenty of water, and a wurzel or two every day, or 

 turn them out to grass in summer. 



" To my regular breeding pigs and stores, I am giving 

 boiled rape-cake and barley-meal, one feed a day, and one 

 feed of raw potatoes or wurzel ; and if in summer, I turn 

 them to grass, or soil them with clover in the yards. 



" I soil a good many every year. A week or two be- 

 fore the sow pigs, I contrive to put her into a loose box, 

 with a railing around to keep her from crushing the pigs. 

 I can always tell when she is going to pig by trying if she 

 has milk in the paps : if a sow gives milk freely, she will 

 pig any time. I then contrive to be, or have some one, 

 near at hand, to take the pigs away as she pigs them, as 

 the sows are sometimes uneasy and will crush them. Af- 

 ter she has pigged, I feed her with warm water and bran, 

 and then give her the pigs and leave them, because the 

 less they are disturbed the better. I always feed the sow 

 sparingly at first, as I have sometimes found, when a sow 

 has been fed too liberally at first, the flow of milk is 

 greater than the pigs can take; consequently the udder be- 

 comes hard, and the sow is very uneasy, and will scarcely 



