BREEDING. 155 



At the age of about fifteen, her litters began to be reduced to four 

 or five; and such a litter she exhibited when in her fatting-pen. She 

 proved, when fat, good bacon, juicy and tender ; the rind or sward 

 was remarkably thin. At a moderate computation she was allowed 

 to have been the fruitful parent of three hundred pigs a prodigious 

 instance of fecundity in so large a quadruped. She was killed in the 

 spring of 1775." 



Although we should by no means advise the keeping of an animal 

 to such an age, still, notwithstanding that it is the fashion or custom 

 to do otherwise, we would advise every breeder never to part with 

 a sow while she continues to bring forth a numerous and fine pro- 

 geny, which many will do for years, and to be a good nurse ; and 

 in general these animals become better nurses the oftener they far- 

 row : her value he knows; the value of the young animal that he 

 intends should succeed her, has yet to be tested ; and if one of the 

 two must be fattened for the butcher, we should decidedly recom- 

 mend that it were the untried one. Varro states that we may judge 

 of the fruitfulness of a sow from her first litter, the subsequent ones 

 being generally all of about the same number. 



A sow that brings forth less than eight pigs at a birth the third or 

 fourth time she farrows is worth little as a breeder, the sooner she 

 is fattened the better ; but a young sow that produces a great num- 

 ber at her first farrowing cannot be too highly valued. 



Whenever it is practicable, it should always be so arranged that 

 the animals shall farrow early in the spring, and at the latter end of 

 the summer or quite the beginning of the autumn. In the former 

 case the young pigs will have the run of the early pastures, which 

 will be a benefit to them and a saving to their owners ; and there 

 will also be more whey, milk, and other dairy produce which can be 

 spared for them by the time they are ready to be weaned. And in 

 the second case there will be sufficient time for the young to have 

 grown and acquired strength before the cold weather comes on, 

 which is always very injurious to sucking pigs. 



Martin says : " None of the pachydermata are, as a general rule, 

 remarkable for fertility. The elephant, the rhinoceros, the hippopo- 

 tamus^ &c., appear to produce only a single offspring at a birth, and 

 that after a long period of gestation ; for example, the gestation of 

 the elephant is said to extend to twenty months and eighteen days. 

 It is then not until after a considerable lapse of time that she again 

 becomes pregnant, and she produces only a single young one. The 

 hog-like peccaries produce, according to Azara, only two at a birth. 

 To this rule the swine is an exception ; it may be that the wild spe- 

 cies are less prolific than the ordinary domestic variety of the genus 

 sus, yet they are fertile, but in the ordinary hog this fertility is at 

 a maximum. Ordinarily, a healthy sow produces eight, ten, of 

 twelve young ones twice a year. The period of gestation is 



