78 A COUNTRY READER. 



A Pig's Fat Saves its Life. 



You have read that a farmer's great aim is to 

 produce a cow that will give the most abundant 

 flow of milk on the smallest quantity of food 

 and, to produce a bullock that will come to 

 maturity early and put on the greatest weight of 

 flesh on the smallest amount of food. 



The great object in feeding pigs to a profit is 

 only to rear and breed from those strains of pigs 

 that will fatten the most readily and quickly on 

 the food that you have about you, and which 

 you can spare to give them. 



On a cheese farm there is the whey ; on a 

 butter-making farm there is the skim and butter- 

 milk ; on a root and grain farm there are the 

 roots and grains ; from a cottage, the wash, odds 

 and ends of the garden, thistles, and herbage of 

 the hedgerows. 



Some varieties of pigs will do best on one sort 

 of food, other varieties will do best on other 

 sorts of food. Which variety of pig will do 

 best for you can only be learnt, as much else in 

 connection with farming, from your own ex- 

 perience, or from the experience of others in 

 your district who have been successful in breed- 

 ing and fattening pigs. 



The natural inclination of all pigs is to put on 

 a large amount of flesh in a very short time. 



