FEEDING. 179 



Swine arc generally fattened for pork at from six to nine months 

 old, and for bacon at from a twelvemonth to two years. Eighteen 

 months is generally considered to be the proper age for a good 

 bacon hog. 



The feeding of pigs will always, in a great measure, depend upon 

 the circumstances of the owner, upon the kind of food which he has 

 at his disposal and can best spare, and the purpose for which he in- 

 tends the animals. It will also be in some degree regulated by the 

 season, it being possible to feed pigs very differently in the summer 

 to what they are fed in the winter. During the former they can 

 either be sty -fed or pastured, or both ; and there is also a greater 

 variety of vegetables and green food for them, as well as of dairy 

 refuse ; while in the winter they must be home-fed, and in most 

 cases their diet limited to roots, peas, beans, or other such dried 

 food, and wash composed of the scanty residue of the dairy, or sup- 

 plied from the house or brewery. 



WHEY, MILK, AND DAIRY REFUSE. 



For sty-fed pigs the washings of the dairy, as butter and skim- 

 milk, whey, &c., are excellent, and especially whey thickened with 

 barley, or oat, or pea-meal, whey being more nourishing than skim- 

 milk ; the animals thrive and make flesh so well on it, that many 

 farmers are of opinion that this mode of employing their sour milk 

 is more profitable than making cheese. But when the swine have 

 once become habituated to this kind of diet it must be continued, as 

 they would fall off if put upon any other. There was a beautiful 

 lot of Coleshill pigs exhibited at the last Smithfield Club Cattle- 

 Show, belonging to the Earl of Radnor, aged twenty-one weeks, 

 which had been fattened on forty-eight bushels of barley-meal and 

 six bushels of potatoes, with an adequate quantity of whey. 

 Wherever, therefore, there are large dairies, swine may be most 

 advantageously kept, the excellence of dairy-fed pork befog incon- 

 testable. 



WASH, GRAINS, AND REFUSE OF BREWERIES AND DISTILLERIES. 



The refuse wash and grains, and other residue of breweries and 

 distilleries, may also be given to swine with advantage, and seem to 

 induce a tendency to lay on flesh, but not in too large quantities, or 

 unmixed with other and more substantial food ; as, although they 

 gain flesh rapidly when fed on it, the meat is not firm, and never 

 makes good bacon. 



Thaer advises that the refuse of brandy-distilleries should always 

 be diluted with water at first, otherwise the animals will reject it, or, 

 if they take it, become giddy, and be unable to keep their feet , 



