No. 151.] 359 



adduces the following: A boar was admitted on the same day tD 

 two sows of two years old, of the same strength, and the issue of 

 the same litter; the first produced nine males and a female; the other, 

 nine females and a male. A young boar about five months old, was 

 afterwards admitted to two sows of the same litter as the boar; the 

 one which first received him, produced five males and two females; 

 and the other, four hours later, six females and two males. He there- 

 fore recommends attention to the fact in the reproduction of all domes- 

 tic animals; and, if it be supported by further experience, the hint 

 may be found useful to the breeders of neat cattle and horses."J 



When you make choice of a boar, never on any consideration 

 choose an animal with a large head, and narrow breast; let his head 

 be small, barrel sound, chine arched, and of compact form; let the 

 sow have a capacious stomach and twelve teats; each pig when it is 

 born selects a particular teat to which it strictly adheres until wean- 

 ed. If there should be more pigs than teats, the supernumeraries 

 must be destroyed; a sow should not be allowed to raise more than 

 six or eight pigs, according to the size. The boar should not 

 cover more than twenty sows in a season, and requires to be remark- 

 ably well fed to do that, and the sow will bring up her progeny in 

 proportion to her keep. I do not mean that she should be fed high, 

 but kept in good heart. Sows that are permitted to take the boar 

 in the months of May and November, will farrow in August and 

 February, decidedly the best months. Farmers, as is usual, should ne- 

 ver continue for a long time to breed " in and in," as by so doing 

 the breed will become bad feeders, and lose in weight. The male 

 and female should not be related. The same rule applies to human 

 beings; relatives should never intermarry. When your sow carries 

 straw you may be sure she is about to farrow. She must be watched 

 and her young carefully abstracted as they are born; if she is a young 

 creature, she may possibly ofifer to eat her young, which not unfre- 

 quently happens. If you suspect her capable of so great a crime, 

 rub their backs with bitter aloes, before you return them to her. 

 Forty swine will probably produce 300 pigs for their first litter. 



" Instances are on record of a sow, which in twenty litters, pro- 

 duced 355; and of one which farrowed thirty-seven at a birth; from 

 16 to 20 are not uncommon;" 7 to 12 is the most usual number. 

 " A sow has been known to bring up 177 pigs in thirteen litters." 

 For the first week after farrowing, the sow should be fed gruel made 

 warm, and occasionally some strong beer mixed with it, afterwards 

 she may have the refuse of the kitchen made lukewafm, buttermilk 



