164: THE HOG. 



l>oar may be allowed to serve from six to ten sows, but on no account 

 more. The best plan is to shut up the boar and sow in a sty to- 

 gether ; for when turned in among several females, he is apt to 

 " ride" them so often, that he exhausts himself without effect. 



The period of gestation averages from seventeen to twenty tveeks, 

 according to the age, constitution, &c., of the mother ; young or 

 weakly sows farrow earlier than those of more mature age or 

 stronger constitutions. It is commonly asserted that three months, 

 three weeks, and three days, is the period of gestation ; but, from 

 M. Tessier's observations on twenty-five sows, it appears that it va- 

 ries from 109 to 123 days. 



A good breeding sow will produce two if not three litters in a 

 year, but two should be the outside number ; for where she is suf- 

 fered to have more, the pigs are not so fine or so many in number, 

 nor can she suckle them so well. How many years they would con- 

 tinue to breed is scarcely known, as it is generally considered to be 

 most advantageous to spay them in their second, or at any rate early 

 in their third year, and then fatten them for the butcher, especially 

 where there is always a stock of young sows to replace them ; for 

 after the just-mentioned period the litters are seldom so fine, and the 

 animal herself deteriorates in value. Some breeders, indeed, only 

 suffer a young sow to have one litter, and then immediately spay 

 and fatten her, as the bacon is then supposed to be equally as good 

 as that of an animal spayed in the very onset. This is mainly a 

 question of choice or economy. An agricultural author of some re- 

 pute states that " a sow is fit for pigging up to her seventh year, and 

 many will continue to be so even longer. The more prolific, how- 

 ever, the animal is, the sooner does she grow old and her fruitfulness 

 decay." 



But they doubtless would go on farrowing for many years, for 

 there are instances on record of sows that have produced as many 

 as eight or ten pigs at a litter when in their eighth and tenth years. 

 Selbourne, in his " Natural History," gives an account of a half-bred 

 bantam sow, kept by a friend of his, more from curiosity than with 

 any view to profit, " who was as thick as she was long, and whose 

 belly swept on the ground, till she was advanced to her seventeenth 

 year ; at which period she showed some tokens of age by the decay 

 of her teeth and the decline of her fertility. 



" For about ten years this prolific mother produced two litters in 

 the year, of about ten at a time, and once above twenty at a litter ; 

 but, as there were near double the number of pigs to that of teats, 

 many died. From long experience in the world, this female was 

 grown very sagacious and artful. When she found occasion to con- 

 verse with a boar, she used to open all the intervening gates, and 

 march, by herself, up to a distant farm where one was kept, and, 

 when her purpose was served, would return by "She same meana 



