FATTENING WEANLINGS. 193 



FATTENING FOR PORK AND BACON. 



Pigs will FATTEN either in confinement or at large 

 in the yard. When in sties care should be taken 

 that the pigs be all ringed, or they will not lie quiet ; 

 also that, when a number are fed together, any one 

 at which the rest may have taken a distaste, be im- 

 mediately withdrawn, or in probability they will 

 tear him to pieces. For the same reason, a stranger 

 should never be introduced. The fewer together, 

 the more quietly and speedily they fatten, and by 

 consequence, they succeed best singly. The troughs 

 with SLIDING BOARDS before the meat, giving way 

 to the snout of the pig, and shutting on his with- 

 drawing his head, generally used in Hants and 

 Berks, greatly prevent waste. They used, I recol- 

 lect, to be provincially denominated witches. 



WEANLINGS are fattened for delicate pork, chiefly 

 in the dairies, where they are made ripe in a few 

 weeks. Generally a pig of five or six months old 

 will be fattened in seven, or eight, or twelve weeks, 

 dependent on his condition. Small bacon hogs will 

 be fattened in twelve weeks, the larger in sixteen to 

 twenty. They should be kept perfectly clean, dry, 

 and comfortable, for which daily attendance is ne- 

 cessary; and it is preferable, where time can be 

 spared, to feed thrice in the day. The most correct 

 feeders, and those largely concerned, endeavour so 

 to apportion the meal, that the trough may be en- 

 tirely cleared, and yet the appetite of the animal 

 thoroughly satisfied ; a plan which has been proved 

 in a thousand examples to fatten the most speedily, 

 and make the fattest hogs : so totally opposite, ne- 



