188 HARRIS ON THE PIG. 



per acre, and feeding them out to pigs, with meal, will 

 make very rich manure, and thus we obtain the means to 

 raise more food, and keep on increasing the productive- 

 ness of the land. 



A Yorkshire pig breeder says : " I have had a great, 

 many York-Cumberland pigs that gained 



7 Ibs. each, per week, up to ten weeks old. 

 10 Ibs. per week for the next seven weeks. 

 14 Ibs. per week until they weighed 23 stone. 



" I can put on 18 Ibs. a week until a certain time, and 

 then they begin to put on less and less every day, until 

 at last you feed at a loss. The pig should be killed when 

 the point of profit for daily food is turned. For this 

 reason the pig should be weighed weekly. 



" After trying nearly all the different kinds of cereals, 

 and weighing my pigs once every fourteen days, I have 

 come to the conclusion, if you want to gain weight fast, 

 give plenty of barley-meal and milk ; if you want to 

 make the most of the food consumed, give boiled vegeta- 

 bles and boiled meal, and finish off with raw meal. 



" On the first plan, time is saved at the expense of food 

 consumed. On the second plan, time is lost, and the 

 food saved." 



If by "food " is meant meal, the statement is probably 

 correct ; but that we ever save food, absolutely, by feed- 

 ing slowly, is a proposition that has never been proved, 

 and is contrary to sound theory and the general experi- 

 ence of the best feeders. A fattening animal should cer- 

 tainly have all the food it can digest and assimilate. To 

 keep him on short allowance is to waste both time and 

 food. 



Another correspondent of Mr. Sidney writes : u With 

 tolerably good land, and no lack of capital, a farmer can- 

 not do better than cultivate white crops alternately, and, 

 with a moderate dairy, confine his stock exclusively to 

 pigs. Let him consume his oats, sell off both wheat and 



