MANAGEMENT OF PIGS. 177 



that it is a very common one. The sows, and any spring 

 pigs that may be wintered over, will pick up the lion's 

 share of the scattered grain and other food in the yards ; 

 and while it is often inconvenient to separate the young 

 pigs from the older ones, yet it is not a difficult matter to 

 make a hole in one of the sides of the pens that will ad- 

 mit the young pigs through, and exclude the large ones, 

 and in this way the young pigs can be fed more and bet- 

 ter food This is a very important point. The young 

 pigs should be kept growing rapidly through the winter 

 and spring months. They should be in a condition that 

 most farmers would pronounce " too fat." Young, well- 

 bred pigs, so wintered, can be summered in a clover pas- 

 ture at comparatively little cost, and it is astonishing how 

 fast they will grow. We have kept a lot of grade Essex 

 fall pigs during the summer on a rich clover pasture near 

 the barn-yard, and the slop from the house, without any 

 grain, that were sold at an extra price on the first of Oc- 

 tober, to "top-off" a car load of fat pigs sent to the New 

 York market. And the whole secret of the matter, if se- 

 cret it is, was in feeding the young pigs liberally through 

 the winter. 



Few things would pay a grain growing farmer better 

 than to raise peas for his pigs. No matter how " buggy" 

 the peas may be, the bugs or beetles remain in the peas 

 until about the first of November ; and when the peas are 

 fed out before this time, the pigs will eat peas and bugs 

 together, and there will be little loss. Nothing makes 

 firmer or better pork and lard than peas, an 1 the manure 

 from pea-fed pigs is exceedingly rich. A heavy crop of 

 peas, too, is a capital crop to precede winter wheat. They 

 will smother the weeds, and, if sown early, are off the 

 land in good season to allow thorough working of the 

 land before wheat sowing. If other food is scarce, a few 

 of the peas may be cut in June, as soon as the pods are 

 formed, and fed green to the pigs, and a daily allowance 

 8* 



