168 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



BfOV. I.J, 1839. 



jeron record of tlie above age, and find' their pr»- 

 Juce to be from 8 to J3 pigs a litter. I know tlie 

 usual wants of t!ie farmers, by hearing thorn fre- 

 quently observe, by their fire-side, " lot me have 

 my slock of pigs to come the first nf Viarch," and 

 at the same time, unconscious of the danger of se- j 

 vere storms and cold blasts in March — and the lit- j 

 tie economy they have in providing shi^ltors for! 

 their sows — frequently lose their entire stock of; 

 pigs, which is of no small vahip to a farmer tliat has ; 

 Ills plan laid out to rear a great number of hogs,, 

 consequently must buy a stock, or sol! their grain ! 

 it reduced price. I have expcrie-.ced the loss i 

 more than once, to a considerable amount, conse- 

 quently I have postponed breeding, as neforc men- 1 

 tioned. 'J'hus I have the security of better v/catli- 

 er and the benefit of vegetation, which lias a good 

 tendency to correct any indisposition in .sows, 

 which frequently occurs in animals as well as hu- 

 man beings. They are subject to inflannnatory 

 colds, and fever succeeding, dries up their milk, 

 the pigs perish and death intervenes. To insure 

 the farmer a quick and rapid growth in liis lot of 

 pigs, let them romo about the last of .April, (say 

 20th) which is far preferable to March pigs, which 

 have sustained much injury while very youncj: stiint- 

 od by frost and hunger, they cannot be well resus- 

 citated by the best of attention afterwards. 



In an ordinary way, sows suckle their young in 

 the spring from six to eight weeks, but in the fall 

 the sows frequently wean their young in ab lut six 

 weeks. I would say, to make your pigs thrive and 

 grow on without much injury in their looks from 

 weaning time, the better way is to prepare a cov- 

 ered pen for your pigs, and have a hole sufficiently 

 large so they can go in and out at pleasure, and 

 always keep shelled corn by tliem. Be particular 

 to commence thus feeding when they are about 

 tliree weeks old, and it will aid the sow in rearing 

 them — consequently they will wean them kindly 

 and grow on without any ill effects which are com- 

 mon to weaning. These pigs will have age and 

 guflicient growth by good clover and blue grass — 

 will winter kindly, which will insure the farmer a 

 regular growth in his lot of hogs by the common 

 mode of corn feeding', or following corn-fed cattle, 

 the excrements they collect from them are equal to 

 cooked or steamed malt. After weaning their lit- 

 ter of pigs, I would advise all the old sows to be 

 apayed, while reduced in flesh by suckling, as the 

 period is most favorable. A careful hand perform- 

 ing the operation in the left side, I seldom or nevar 

 lose any of that age and healthy rearing. They 

 will fatten kindly, and make about as much weight 

 at selling time as their brothers of the same litter. 

 You now perceive I do not winter anv hogs more 

 than one winter. I can say from experience, that 

 sows with pig winter better than barrows. Tliey 

 should be kept in a large woodland pasture, if prac- 

 ticable, by themselves, to prevent any injury from 

 other hogs. Be careful to have a house or shelter 

 to protect them in inclement weather. Continue 

 to select every spring the best female pigs out of 

 your litters, as many as you may think will pro- 

 duce as many pigs as you may M'ant to breed from, 

 and by so doing you may rear your hogs on your 

 farm at a moderate calculation of 20 per cent over 

 and above the prevailing practice of the day. As 

 in the corampn way the farmer has his male.s and 

 females running together at large, then they mSy 

 expect to have litters of pigs every month in the 

 year; the uneveness of the lot of hogs, and conse- 

 quently the stronger will be certain to abuse the 



weak, (a hog is a hog by name and nature,) and hav- 

 ing masterly strength, and in all cases the weaker 

 are driven from their food and comfortable shelter 

 in the forest ; and in many cases we have a proof 

 of the unecouomizing rural system of our fariuers, 

 by having all size's and ages. In onr u.sual winters 

 we see the small class of hogs, when pinched with 

 cold, deep snows and wet weather, fall victims of 

 death by Binothering and suppression by the larger 

 class being with the small ones. On all occasions 

 hogs ought to be separated and classed according 

 to size, and kept in the woodland pastures where 



they may provide shelter in the forest foliage 



Every farmer should provide himself with hog- 

 houses in his wood-land i)astures, where they can 

 get the foliage of the forest to make their beds. — 

 The best place for these houses should be selected 

 on the south or iiortheost side of a hili, so as to re- 

 ceive the warmth of t)ie sun in the winter, and on 

 a moderate slope, so as to drain off the water, and 

 that the sun luay the bettor dry and warm the 

 earth. As to form I am not particular, but always 

 recommend the shelter to be close and dry; to aid 

 in keeping dry much care should be observed in 

 trenching around the house to turn tiie water. 



Rearing a Ji^-d of blooded ftmale swine ; spring 

 and summer treatment ; breeding and winter treat- 

 ment. — They should be left in a lot suiTiciently 

 large for exercise, containing plenty of water (for 

 wallowing) and shade. If the grazing is not suiii- 

 cicnt, I would advise a little corn, dish-water, slops 

 and soap-suds, mixed together, to be given them, 

 80 as to keep the animals in a good healthy look, 

 but by no means like fattening, to hurrying them in 

 their growth. 



My practice for winter treatment. After my 

 sows are all pregnant, if practicable, I always have 

 a large field of clover or meadow for their grasistf, 

 or put them on rye or wheat- fields, and let them 

 graze about 24 hour.^, twice a week, when the anovi 

 is off the ground ; always providing a comfortable 

 dry shed or houses for them, having a regular time 

 for feeding, (morning and evening,) and if any ani- 

 mal stands in danger from the want of regular feed- 

 ing while pregnant, it is the sow; ai;d there is 

 great danger of their being fed too much at a time, 

 by careless or inexperienced servants, which is apt 

 to produce abortions. Another cause is the severe 

 weather on sows, snow and wet weather, when tlie, ■ 

 have frequently to make their beds in the snow, 

 and sometimes in mud and water — when shelters 

 are not provided for them ; this is the cause v.liy 

 "wc so often hear our farmers say all their sows 

 hiive slunk their pig.s, and shall have no pigs in ilio i 

 spring, and another cause still 'more particular, I | 

 leave to the carefu) to observe ; when my sows are i 

 half gone with pig, (.sometime in February,) without 

 fail, I separate my sows and put them in lots (4 or.") ! 

 in number) to prevent from laying one upon anoth- I 

 er along in February and March, cold snowy spells, ' 

 which causes them, by oppression, to miscarry. — I 

 'ibis is the time that the greatest care should be i 

 taken with sows, as the period of littering is close | 

 at hand, for if they should giiscarry, you have again 

 to breed them, when their pigs will come late and 

 much time lost. 



Breeding or blooded Sows. — When they have at- 

 tained to the ago of eightrnonths or thereabout, my 

 practice is to breed them between the 1st and 1.3th 

 December, so as to make their littering to the lat- 

 ter end of March_and by having shelters or houses 

 for their littering in, I can venture breeding sooner 



than I would otherwise advise. I can rear this lit 

 .ter and have my sows stinted to boar, and bring the 

 second litter in and about the 1st and middle o 

 Seplciiiber, so as to have time to rear thorn, and si 

 they will stand the ensuing winter. Then my sow, 

 c^in have about a month's rest until the 1st of De 

 cember, which I very much approve of for breed 

 ing again, and by so doing I have three litterj ii 

 the period of 19 months. You now see the month: 

 I prefer for my blooded sows to litter — the end o 

 March and the 1st of April. The second litte 

 Irom 1st to 15th September, and the third litter thi 

 latter end of .\;arch and 1st of .April, which makei. 

 the period I have noticed. In stinting my sows tn 

 the boar according to the time mentioned, I havi 

 been very p'rticular to aid my memory by commit 

 ting to writing the time when they were stinte( 

 rind the mode of stinting. I .was in the habit o 

 the old custom in my first beginning of doing busi 

 ness in this way. I soon saw there was an crro 

 somewhere, and my intentions wore defeated somi 

 how — as I woukj reserve my lot of common sows ti 

 be bred in December, so as to bring the pigs thi' 

 first of April, when the weather wps warm, and thu 

 old custom would be to let the boar go with somi 

 twenty or thirty sows, with the expectation of hav 

 ing a lot of pigi of one ago, and in a comn.on wa; 

 there would come in season atone time, in all prob 

 •ability, one-third of the sows. Admit the boar t( 

 be in good health and a full flow of animal spirit, 

 a'nd strength, he will soon by severe service be im 

 potent, and consequently only the first few sow: 

 may be impregnated. The sows will in all proba 

 bility continue to come in season, and the boar stil 

 reducing every day, and yet his lasciviousness keep 

 him incapable of being fruitful. Hence, I foum 

 by experience, my sows were unproductive, sonn 

 having two or tliree pigs, and they coming in muci 

 later than 1 exjiectod, consequently I would recom 

 mend one boar to every ten sows, where you wan 

 alt your pigs of one age and of good size. Of al 

 the animal creation that I have any acquaintanci 

 with, the boar and ram will lose their juices faste 

 from gendering. I will aver that a boar may be ii 

 good health and high condition of animal spirits 

 and just let him with a lot of rows twer.ty or lhirt\ 

 in number, and in four weeks time he will lose on( 

 hundred pounds weight, and you may feed hini 

 witl^what corn he may want to cat. 



My young maiden sows 1 hardly ever permit to 

 be served but one time ; my reason for this is that 

 the old boars are too heavy and strong for them 

 he inaslies them down when they are willing; il 

 not, he hunches them with his nose, and bruises 

 ttiem so much that it impedes their growth forevei 

 afterwards. It is astonishing to think how they 

 frequently support them. I disapprove under any 

 circumstances, of letting the male to ii sow more 

 than once when he is in good order. I recomncnd 

 an aged male to maiden sows in all cases, to se- 

 cure large, sprightly, and well formed pigs, and 

 more prolific. I have kept a true account hereto- 

 fore, of this practice. I let a lot of seven sows run 

 with the boar until they have done with him, and 

 kept their several dates. I also had a lot of young 

 and old sows. I let the boar out of his pound and 

 let him serve them once a piece, and kept their sev- 

 eral dates. There was but one out of the six that 

 did not stand, and out of the lot of seven there were 

 two which did not stand. The lot of six produced 

 from six to eleven pigs apiece, and the lot of seven 

 did not produce as many pigs by four as the six. 

 I kept both lots in the same manner with care, and 



