MANAGEMENT OF THOROUGH-BRED PIGS. 213 



draw so much on the strength of the sow. In the case 

 of thorough-bred pigs, where it is desirable to have the 

 sows breed as long as they produce strong litters of 

 ten or a dozen, this is quite an important point. Great 

 care must be taken not to tax the strength of the sow 

 too much. Little pigs, of a good breed, grow so rapidly, 

 that they require much more food than ordinary pigs, 

 while the sow has been so refined by breeding, that she 

 is seldom strong enough to stand the drain, when the pigs 

 depend entirely on her for food. 



The pigs will do better to remain with the sow until 

 they are two months old ; and if they are well fed, and 

 are gradually weaned in the way above recommended, the 

 sow will suffer no harm. 



According to the experiments of Doctor Miles, previous- 

 ly alluded to, Essex pigs, about three weeks old, ate 3 1 1 3 

 Ibs. of new milk, each, per day. The next week they ate 

 nearly 7 Ibs. of milk, each, per day. From this, it ap- 

 pears that a litter of ten pigs, a month or five weeks old, 

 will eat over 30 quarts of new milk a day, or more than is 

 ordinarily given by the best cows. We present these facts 

 here to show what an immense drain a suckling sow is 

 called upon to sustain. We have often observed how 

 rapidly such a sow loses flesh after the third week. 

 No matter how fat she may have been, and how much of 

 the richest food she is allowed, she will soon get very thin 

 unless the pigs are induced to eat other food than that 

 which the mother supplies. 



The milk of the sow is richer than that of any other 

 domestic animal. Milk is derived from the blood, and this 

 is derived either directly from the food, or from the flesh 

 and fat stored up in the animal. It is, therefore, easy to 

 understand that, when a sow is called upon to give as 

 much milk as one of the largest and best cows, it must 

 tax her digestive powers to the utmost, or rapidly convert 

 her flesh into blood and milk. 



