240 HARKIS ON THE PIG. 



tal lecture he delivered on the management of pigs, which 

 I will send you. I enclose also a letter from Mr. Sidney. 



" The White Leicesters have disappeared. They had little or no hair. 

 The large Yorks (not the Mammoth) are the most profitable as thjey 

 grow so fast, and are turned into money quickly. 



" There are no such animals as pure Suffolks. They are the Fisher 

 Hobbs Essex variety. 



"If you want sows to breed well, do not keep them too fat, nor yet 

 in a weakly condition. Let them have a field to run about in. We used 

 to fat a great many ' porkers ' with pulped roots, straw, chaff, and Indian 

 corn, but we have now such a large demand for breeding pigs, that we 

 have none loft for fatting. With respect to feeding, the food should be 

 given warm, not hot." 



From this last remark I conclude that the pulped roots, 

 chaff, and Indian meal were cooked. 



The following is an extract from Mr. Sidney's letter 

 to Mr. Howard : 



" I do not think our pigs have improved during the last ten years 

 [since Mr. Sidney's book was written]. On the contrary, our Shows 

 are likely to cultivate fat at the expense of constitution. I think Mr. 

 Harris mistakes my advice. [I thought he condemned the use of an 

 Essex or Berkshire boar with a white sow.] A cross of black and white 

 answers well for feeding, as most first crosses do. I observe that black 

 pigs have made their way in Yorkshire." 



The following extracts are from Mr. John Fisher's lec- 

 ture on the breeding and management of pigs, alluded to 

 by Mr. Howard. Mr. Fisher is the manager of Carhead 

 Farm, near Crosshills, Yorkshire, and an experienced and 

 successful breeder. We should remark that Carhead is a 

 grass farm, and all the food for the pigs is purchased. Mr. 

 F. says: 



" I am a decided advocate for early breeding and early feeding, and 

 consider October or November the best time for putting sows to the 

 boar for the general crop. They will then bring their litter in March, 

 and get them weaned, and take the boar again early in May, so that their 

 second litter may get strong enough to stand the winter ; and if the 

 young sows, bred in March, have been liberally fed, and allowed plenty of 

 exercise during the summer, they will be quite ready to take the boar in 

 November, and bring their first litter at twelve months old. And we 

 consider this the best way either to commence or increase a stock of 

 breeding pigs, and should not endorse the claim to early maturity in any 

 breed of pigs, if they were not unfit to rear a litter of young at twelve 



