SWINE FOE THE HOME MAEKET. 247 



There is nothing like skim milk for young pigs, and yet 

 it cannot be fed profitably for any length of time at over 

 half a cent a quart. 



As a substitute, I have used to advantage good bran and 

 crushed oats scalded so as to make a thin mush. After 

 the third month some meal can be added, and gradually 

 increased until it takes the place entirely of the bran and 

 constitutes three-fourths of the grain feed. With spring 

 pigs this feed of grain can be supplemented by one feed a 

 day of green fodder ; freshly-cut clover being the best of all. 

 Young pigs should be fed three times a day. Some of the 

 farmers that supply me with pnrk. have been most success- 

 ful in turning weaned pigs out to clover, and feeding only a 

 small ration of skim milk or slops once a day, continuing 

 this until six weeks before marketing, and then finishing off 

 in close pens, kept clean, with corn meal and whole corn. 



One litter of sixteen, by a Berkshire boar out of a very 

 good Chester White sow, raised in this way by Mr. Childs 

 of East Thetford, Vermont, only cost tho owner $35 for 

 grain, and at six months and a few days averaged over 250 

 pounds, dress weight, Mr. Childs, I may add, was a skilful 

 feeder. A neio^hbor of mine in Southborousfh last season 

 obtained almost similar results with eleven pigs, very high 

 grade Berkshires. He cut his clover from an old garden 

 patch and fed daily in a large, dry pen. Four crops of 

 clover were cut off the same grounds during the season, and 

 1 never saw finer pigs of their age than these. They 

 averaged 208 pounds, dress weight, at less than six months. 



The anatomy of the pig resembles very closely that, of 

 man. The stomach is very small, but they have great 

 power of assimilating food, and if fed properly will put on 

 flesh very rapidly. Originally a herbivorous animal, the 

 modern pig requires more or less condensed and nitrogenous 

 food, and the latter explains the value of clover. A good 

 illustration of the great improvement in the modern pig and 

 of the small amount of waste, is an experiment tried in 

 England a few years ago. A thoroughbred Yorkshire, 

 about twelve months old, that dressed over 600 pounds, 

 was carefully dissected, and the bones, cleansed, weighed 

 only 21 pounds. 



