131: HABKIG OX THE PIG. 



necessary for the proper digestion of their food. He had 

 had young pigs looking very bad and drooping, but when 

 turned out, that they might get dirt, they soon became 

 nil right again. In fact, it was absolutely necessary, dur- 

 ing the whole life of a pig, to allow it an opportunity of 

 getting grit or dirt, or it would not thrive well. 



" At seven or eight weeks old, all the pigs he did not 

 require for breeding he had cut, and began to wean them 

 a fortnight afterwards. He then turned them into a grass 

 field, with a hovel for them to run into, and allowed each 

 pig a quart per day of peas, Egyptian beans, or Indian 

 corn. lie gave them one pint of the corn in the morning, 

 and the other in the evening, with regularity as to time 

 and quantity, and found it better to give it them on the 

 grass, in a clean place, each time, than in a trough, as it 

 prevented quarreling, and each pig got his share. With 

 this quart of corn per day, and what grass they got dur- 

 ing the seven months of the year, with nothing but water 

 to drink, the pigs would, on the average, make 5 Ibs. of 

 pork, each, per week. After eight months, he allowed an 

 extra half pint of corn per day. At the present price of 

 corn (1862), the allowance would cost about Is. per week 

 [24 cents], for each pig ; grass, 4 cents ; attention of man, 

 2 cents ; total cost, Is. 3d. (30 cents), leaving a profit of 

 24 cents per week on each pig, when pork was 12 cents 

 per pound ; it was no\v 14 cents. 



" One man attended well, to from 200 to 300 pigs; he 

 was an Irishman, for few Englishmen liked the job suf- 

 ficiently well to take an interest in them, and carelessness 

 on the part of the man materially decreased the profits. 



<; He kept the store sows, when with pig, the same as 

 the other stores. They ran about in a field until a fort- 

 night before pigging, when he placed them in a covered 

 shed, so constructed as to admit as much sun as possible. 

 Young pigs, kept in the manner described, were always 

 nearly fat enough for porkers, and did not require more 



