PIGGING-HOUSE CLEANLINESS FIRST FOOD. 215 



the quality of the pigs, and the most puny and worth- 

 less may escape. None must be saved beyond the 

 number of teats, and, upon an average, NINE is a 

 sufficient number. Would the sow submit quietly, 

 STRAPPING her jaws during the first day and night, 

 with the trouble of releasing her at her meals, would 

 be an effectual security, in case of unnatural vora- 

 ciousness. As to very numerous litters, our newspa- 

 per columns are periodically stocked with triumphant 

 accounts. 



The PIGGING-HOUSE should be warm and dry, eight 

 feet square, and secure from the inroads of foxes and 

 other vermin, which have been known to steal suck- 

 ing pigs from the sleeping or absent sow. Short straw 

 is preferable for a bed, but in not too great quantity, 

 lest the pigs be smothered beneath it ; this should be 

 renewed with due regard to cleanliness, and as the 

 unwieldy sow is apt to crush her young against the 

 wall, it is proposed, in the New Farmer's Calendar, 

 to append an inclining or projecting rail around, be- 

 neath which the pigs may escape, on the down-lying 

 of the sow. Sows which are given to devour their 

 pigs, or have teats too large and coarse, or yield too 

 thick and unwholesome milk, should be discarded as 

 breeders, but a small number of pigs at the first litter 

 is no valid objection. 



The FIRST FOOD should consist of warm and nou- 

 rishing wash, whether from the kitchen or dairy, 

 thickened with fine pollard or barley-meal. A por- 

 tion of strong beer may be added as a cordial, should 

 circumstances render it necessary. The common 

 wash, pollard or meal mixed with water, if scalded, 



