396 REARING AND FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 



In 30 clays the males may be castrated, and a like operation, though not abso- 

 lutely necessary, may be performed upon the females at the same time. 



During the period of nursing, the darn and her young should be lodged dry 

 and warm. They should be fed three times in the day with whey, milk, and 

 a little water slightly warm, mixed with bran, meal, or any farinaceous sub- 

 stance, and when the pigs are in the course of feeding from the troughs, the 

 mother may be allowed to go at large for an hour or two. 



In six weeks, if they are well fed, the pigs may be weaned, but should they 

 not have been well fed, eight weeks will be required. When weaned, they are 

 to be fed three times a day with wheat-bran, barley-dust, or any farinaceous 

 food, mixed with water warmed to the temperature of the mother's milk, and 

 with whey, or other refuse of th? dairy or the kitchen. In a few weeks they 

 will begin to eat potatoes, turnips, and all other food. 



The young pigs are sometimes disposed of when sucking the dam. In other 

 cases they are sold when weaned to persons who design to feed them; and in 

 other cases they are fed by the breeder himself. 



When they are fattened by the breeder, two modes of feed ing may be adopted. 

 They may be either suffered to go at large, or they may be kept in pens and 

 houses. By the first of these methods, after being weaned and fed for a period 

 till they are able to shift for themselves, they are turned abroad to pick up what 

 they can in the straw-yards, a little green food, as tares or clover during sum- 

 mer, and turnips or potatoes during winter being supplied to them. They do 

 not, under this management, receive anymore expensive feeding until they 

 are put up finally to be fattened, when they are confined for a few weeks, and 

 fed on farinaceous and other food. The pigs intended for this species of man- 

 agement should be the best of the smaller varieties; and they may be killed 

 for domestic use, or disposed of when of 7 or 8 stones weight. All the accom- 

 modation required under this system of management, is a few pens with sheds; 

 first, for the breeding swine when nursing their young; and second, for the pigs 

 which are in the course of being fattened. 



In all cases upon a farm, a certain number of pigs may be kept at large in 

 this manner for picking up the waste of the farm-yards. But the regular 

 course of management, and that to be adopted where the feeding of the ani- 

 mals is carried on on the larger scale, is to have separate feeding houses for 

 the pigs, in which a greater or lesser number can be kept. 



The same generalprinciple of feeding applies to the hog as to the other 

 domestic animals. The breeding stock is to be kept in good order, but not 

 over-fed; the feeding stock is to receive a full allowance of good food from the 

 period of weaning until it is fat. 



The food of the feeding pigs is every kind of animal refuse, as that of the 

 dairy and kitchen. Rojkts of any kind, raw and boiled, will be eaten by them; 

 but it is better that this species of food be boiled or steamed. Bran steamed 

 or boiled, is likewise a. nourishing food for pigs; beans and peas bruised mar 

 be also given to them; and brewers' grains and wash furnish one of the best 

 kinds of food that can be supplied; but the pork will not take and retain the 

 salt as readily as that fed on more solid and substantial food. Hay or dried 

 fodder is not relished by this class of animals: they require food of a moist 

 and succulent kind, and therefore, though they dislike dried forage, they will 

 not refuse hay and even straw if chopped and boiled. They feed on green 

 food of all kinds; and hence clover, lucerne, and tares may be employed in 

 feeding them in. summer, though to fatten them finally some farinaceous or 

 other nourishing food will be required. They will also graze like sheep or 

 oxen, but grass consumed in this manner isnot the natural food of the animal, 

 which consists of roots rather than of herbage. The feeding of pigs on herb- 

 age, is merely to carry them on for a time till more fattening food can be pro- 

 cured for them. When fed on herbage, a ring must be passed through the 

 cartilage of the nose, to prevent their following their natural instinct of 

 ploughing up the ground, but the same purpose may be more effectually 

 >erved, by dividing the tendons by which they are enabled to move the snout. 

 Acorns and beech-mast are a favourite food of the hog, but these are rarely 

 furnished in sufficient quantity for the purpose of feeding, th'ough in cases 

 where there is access to woods'producing these fruits, hogs may be turned into 





