THE PIG. 463 



If the sow should produce less than eight pigs at the first 

 litter, it may be considered unprofitable to keep her as a 

 breeder ; unless her blood is very valuable, she had better 

 be fattened for pork. 



WEIGHT OF PIGS AT BIRTH. 



The sow having farrowed her litter in safety, let us ex- 

 amine the young things, and get an idea of their dimensions. 

 What does the young pig ordinarily weigh at birth? We 

 have never personally weighed them at birth, and know of 

 only one record of such weighing. Boussingault says he 

 was " curious to ascertain the weight of pigs at the moment 

 of birth, so as to determine their rate of increase during 

 the period of suckling." He weighed a litter of five pigs 

 on the 5th September. They weighed from 2.20 Ibs. to 

 3.30 Ibs., the average being 2.75 Ibs. each. This seems a 

 very small beginning for an animal that has sometimes 

 reached over 1,000 Ibs. weight. Thirty-six days afterwards, 

 October llth, the litter had grown to 86.9 Ibs. an average 

 of 17.3 Ibs. per head; being an increase of 14.6 per head, 

 or 0.41 Ibs. per day. On the 15th November, they weighed 

 177 Ibs. an increase, in 35 days, of 90.2 Ibs., or 18 Ibs. per 

 head, being 0.50 per day. In another case, he found that 

 eight pigs that weighed at a month old 14. 3 Ibs. per head, 

 at a year old weighed 165 Ibs. per head; being a gain of 

 150 Ibs. each in el-even months, or less than half a pound 

 per day. 



MILK YIELDED BY DAM. 



We have weighed many pigs at four to six weeks old, and 

 found the weight to range from 12 to 18 Ibs. Thus it will 

 be seen that the pig increases in weight from birth to 

 weaning about fivefold, and then only has a weight of about 

 15 Ibs. This growth generally comes from the milk of the 

 dam in the short time of four or five weeks. What an im- 

 mense drain this must be on the mother, and how impor- 



