FATTENING WEANLINGS. 219 



which the rest may have taken a distaste, be immedi- 

 ately withdrawn, or in probability they will tear him 

 to pieces. For the same reason, a stranger should 

 never be introduced. The fewer together, the more 

 quietly and speedily they fatten, and by consequence, 

 they succeed best singly. The troughs with SLIDING 

 BOARDS before the meat, giving way to the snout of 

 the pig, and shutting on his withdrawing his head, 

 generally used in Hants and Berks, greatly prevent 

 waste. They used, I recollect, to be provincially 

 denominated witches. 



WEANLINGS are fattened for delicate pork, chiefly 

 in the dairies, where they are made ripe in a few weeks. 

 Generally a pig of five or six months old will be 

 fattened in seven, or eight, or twelve weeks, dependent 

 on his condition. Small bacon hogs will be fattened 

 in twelve weeks, the larger in sixteen to twenty. 

 They should be kept perfectly clean, dry, and com- 

 fortable, for which daily attendance is necessary ; and 

 it is preferable, where time can be spared, to feed 

 thrice in the day. The most correct feeders, and 

 those largely concerned, endeavour so to apportion the 

 meal, that the trough may be entirely cleared, and 

 yet the appetite of the animal thoroughly satisfied ; a 

 plan which has been proved in a thousand examples 

 to fatten the most speedily, and make the fattest hogs ; 

 so totally opposite, nevertheless, to the ancient and 

 still too common country method of filling the troughs 

 at every feeding hour, whether empty or not. I have 

 witnessed an old farmer repeatedly urging his servant 

 to the performance of this duty, whilst the hog- 

 trough remained constantly replenished with a 

 L 2 



