IIOU. 



" When a sow is near the limp of 

 farrowing, wliich is four months alter 

 she has taken the boar, slie sliould be 

 put in a sty by herself, with a mod- 

 erate quantity of straw, for if tliere 

 be too great an abunilancc she is apt 

 to lie down on the young pigs when 

 they bury themselves in the loose 

 straw. Sows, although very careful 

 of their pigs, are very apt to lie on 

 them, especially when any of them 

 are near a wall : to prevent this, it is 

 very useful to have a ledge of wood 

 six inches wide, and six inches from 

 the ground, all round the stye, so that 

 she cannot lie down close to the wall ; 

 and if a young pig should be acci- 

 dentally behind her, he can take ref- 

 uge behind the ledge, and thus es- 

 cape being lain upon. When no pre- 

 cautions are taken, one fourth of a 

 litter is often lost in the first day or 

 two after they are born. Some sows 

 have the unnatural propensity of eat- 

 ing their young pigs as soon as they 

 drop : good feeding will prevent this 

 in some measure, but attention at 

 the moment of farrowing is the sa- 

 fest and surest preventive. When 

 once the young pigs have sucked, 

 much of the danger is past. 



" A sow with many pigs should be 

 well fed ; bran and meal, with milk 

 or whey, are the best food ; grains, 

 where they are at hand, are excel- 

 lent ; and it is useful to let the sow 

 go out to graze in a meadow or clo- 

 ver field for an hour or two every day, 

 shutting up the pigs during that time 

 till they are a fortnight or three weeks 

 old, when they may accompany the 

 sow. A sow will live many years, 

 and bring numerous litters, and the 

 older she is the better nurse she is in 

 general. When a sow has ten or 

 twelve pigs at a litter, and two litters 

 in the year, one in spring and anoth- 

 er in autumn, she is too valuable to 

 be killed, and ought to be kept as long 

 as she will breed. But otherwise it 

 is very profitable to let a young sow 

 have a litter at ten months old, and 

 spay her immediately ; she will then 

 fatten most readily as soon as the 

 pigs are weaned, and the bacon will 

 be as good as that of a maiden pig. 

 372 



Whenever a sow does not bring a 

 suliicicnt number of pigs, or is not a 

 good nurse, or has overeaten any of 

 her pigs, she should be spayed and 

 lattened immediately. The young 

 pigs intended to be kept for stores or 

 for porkers are castrated or spayed 

 at a month or six weeks old. The 

 males are then called harrow pigs, and 

 when fatted make the best bacon. 

 They are usually put up at a twelve- 

 month old, and fatted in three or four 

 uionths. At first they have potatoes 

 raw or boiled ; pumpkins, artichokes, 

 apples, brewers' grains, are all e.x- 

 cellent mixed with bran, or bean meal, 

 or they have dry beans and water. 

 After they are half fat they should 

 have pease meal, corn meal, flax 

 meal, and water, unless in a dairy, 

 where they have the skimmed milk 

 or whey. Hogs fattened on potatoes 

 only do not make so good bacon as 

 those which are fatted on corn. Po- 

 tatoes are an excellent food for store 

 pigs, and may be given boiled and 

 mixed with meal in the early part of 

 the fatting process ; but beans and 

 pease make the firmest flesh, and 

 corn meal the sweetest. Before a 

 hog is killed he is usually fed for 

 some time on corn meal and water 

 alone, given as thick as porridge, and 

 very little, if any water is given to 

 him. This last rule is often carried 

 to too great an extent. Much water 

 will make the food pass through too 

 rapidly, and it will not be digested, 

 but the hog should never suffer from 

 thirst, or he will not thrive. Before 

 a hog is killed he should be kept with- 

 out food for twelve hours at least ; 

 he may, however, have water. He 

 should be killed without giving him 

 more pain or causing more struggling 

 than is necessary, by a resolute stab 

 with the knife in the lower part of 

 the neck, where the knife may sever 

 the large artery which comes direct- 

 ly from the heart. The blood should 

 he allowed to flow freely till it is all 

 out of the body. The hog, if intend- 

 ed for salt pork, must then be scald- 

 ed with water not quite boiling, and 

 well scraped, to take off the hair with 

 the cuticle ; but for bacon it is best to 



