164 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



tion. One male, according to the Complete Grazier^ should 

 not be permitted to have access to more than ten females in 

 a year. Sows will usually have pigs twice a year, and 

 should be put to the males at such times as will bring one 

 litter in April and another early in September. 



' Those sows are accounted the best breeders,' says the 

 Farmer's Assistant, ' which have about ten or twelve paps. 

 They should be kept clean and well littered ; but should not 

 have too much litter at the time of pigging, lest they OA'er- 

 lay their pigs in it. At the end of a week or ten days, they 

 should be let out of their sties into the yard for three or 

 four hours each day. Where several sows are farrowing 

 about the same time, they must be kept in separate apart- 

 ments in the sty, lest they devour the pigs of each other. 

 Young sows will sometimes eat their own offspring, which 

 may be prevented by washing the backs of the pigs in an 

 infusion of aloes ; and, for this purpose, the sows must be 

 watched. It is said that supplying them with plenty of wa- 

 ter at this time will prevent any mischief taking place of 

 this kind.' 



Mr. Featherstonhaugh says, ' Farmers differ much in their 

 plans of raising holding stock for pork ; some permitting 

 their shoats to run at large eighteen months, till they are 

 penned up to fatten ; this is the most troublesome and least 

 profitable way ; others give them a range in clover pastures, 

 and begin to fatten them earlier. I apprehend there is a 

 much more profitable way, and attended with less trouble for 

 those who have the right breed. According to the quantity 

 of pork wanted should be the number of breeding sows kept 

 over, and there should be no other hogs on the farm [that is, 

 kept over winter] but the breeding sows. These, when they 

 pig the latter end of March, should be fed in the most at- 

 tentive manner, with swill and shorts. The pigs from a full- 

 grown sow will generally be twelve in number ; these should 

 be thinned down to eight, and as soon as they begin to feed 

 freely out of the trough should be Aveaned, and afterwards 

 fed regularly with green tares, clover, boiled potatoes, ground 

 peas, unmerchantable corn, or any other nourishing food ; 

 turning them out every day into a small yard, where there 

 is a shallow pond for them to lie in. A remarkable breed 

 of pigs, which had been treated pretty much in this manner, 

 were exhibited at Duanesburgh fair; when eight months old, 

 one of them was slaughtered, and weighed exactly three 

 hundred and eleven pounds ; they all attracted universal at- 



