MANAGEMENT OF PIGS. 175 



CHAPTER XVIIL 



MANAGEMENT OF PIGS. 



The object of keeping pigs differs in different places 

 and circumstances. The dairy farmer keeps pigs princi- 

 pally for the purpose of turning his whey and skimmed 

 milk to good account. The grain-growing farmers, in the 

 older settled parts of the country, keep pigs to consume 

 the slops of the house, and to pick up scattered grain 

 around the barns and on the stubbles, and to consume, 

 and turn into pork, small potatoes, and many other arti- 

 cles that would otherwise be wasted. At the West, where 

 corn is cheap, and the expense of sending it to market 

 very great, pigs are kept for the purpose of " packing 

 fourteen bushels of corn into a three-bushel barrel." In 

 the vicinity of the Atlantic cities, pigs are kept, or might 

 be kept, for the purpose of manufacturing out of pur- 

 chased food, nice, fresh pork, and rich, valuable manure. 

 And, indeed, in all sections where pigs are kept, the value 

 of the manure should be taken into consideration. 



PIGS ON DAIRY FARMS. 



There is no other food on which young pigs thrive so 

 well as on skimmed milk and Indian meal. Pigs are also 

 very fond of whey, and do well on it provided they have 

 a liberal allowance of pea-meal and Indian meal fed with 

 it. To keep pigs on whey alone is a great waste of food 

 and time. On skimmed milk, and the run of a clover 

 pasture, n, well-bred, young pig, will grow rapidly ; but 

 even in this case a little corn-meal could be fed with very 

 decided economy and advantage. The oil and starch of 

 the corn restore to the skimmed milk the fat-forming 

 material which has been removed in the butter, and, in 

 effect, convert it into new milk again. But it is very de- 



