BOOK VII. IX. 13-X. 2 



laborious task to carry out this plan in large herds, 

 the most convenient method is to construct the sties 

 in such a way that their thresholds are low enough 

 for the sow to be able to get out but too high for the 

 sucking pig to climb over ; thus no strange porker 

 can creep in, and each litter awaits its own mother 

 in the place where they sleep. A litter ought not to 

 number more than eight, not that I am ignorant that 

 the fecundity of breeding-sows can produce more 

 than this number, but because a sow which rears more 

 than eight quickly becomes worn out. Those sows 

 which are given a litter to rear, must be sustained with 

 cooked barley, so that they may not be reduced to a 

 state of extreme emaciation and from that to some 

 fatal sickness. The careful swineherd will frequently 14 

 sweep out the piggery and the sties still more often ; 

 for, though the animal in question behaves in a filthy 

 manner when it is at pasture, it likes its sleeping- 

 place to be very clean. Such, more or less, is the 

 manner in which pigs should be kept when they are 

 in good health ; our next task is to deal with the care 

 of the pig in disease. 



X. The signs of fever in pigs are when they lean Diseases of 

 over and hold their heads awry, and, after running thei/cures. 

 forward a little way over their feeding-ground, 

 suddenly halt and are seized with giddiness and fall 

 down. Notice must be taken in which direction 2 

 they lean their heads forward, so that we may let 

 blood from the ear on the opposite side ; we shall 

 also smite under the tail, at two fingers' distance from 

 the haunches, the vein which at this point is fairly 

 big, but it ought first to be beaten with a vine-twig, 

 and then, as it swells up from the stroke of the rod, it 

 should be opened with a knife, and, after the blood 



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