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many cases its use may be continued to the sow until the pigs 

 are weaned, but it will sometimes be found that pure or highly 

 bred piglings will suffer from scouring or diarrhoea if the 

 mothers be fed on any great quantity of milk until the little ones 

 are some four weeks old. Diarrhoea appears to arise from the 

 sow's milk becoming either too rich or too profuse in quantity 

 and thus causing indigestion. The little pigs will begin to feed 

 when they are about a month old; they should then be fed apart 

 from the sow with skim milk and a small quantity of unground 

 oats or wheat. This can be arranged either by allowing the 

 suckers to have the run of an adjoining pen, or by turning the 

 sow out for an hour or so, either into a straw-yard, or, better 

 still, on to a pasture. The quantity of food given to the pigs, 

 besides that which they obtain with the sow, may be gradually 

 increased until they reach seven or eight weeks old, when they 

 will be ready to be weaned. If the pigs are not intended for 

 breeding purposes, they should be attended to when they are 

 about six weeks old. 



In order to produce the finest quality of pork for the bacon- 

 curer, in the most economical manner, it will be found necessary 

 to begin the fatting process as soon as the pigs are weaned, or 

 in other words, never allow them to get a check through stint- 

 ing their food. Skim milk, with miller's offal, a few peas or oats, 

 and later on, as the pigs grow stronger, gradually add barley 

 meal and Smith's cocoa-nut meal (in the proportion of four parts 

 barley meal and to one cocoa-nut meal), with milk or whey, 

 until these become the main food, as the pigs reach the weight 

 of 200 pounds alive, and fit for the bacon curer; this should be 

 when they are seven to nine months old — you then obtain car- 

 cases of juicy, tender, lean meat, with a small proportion of fat. 

 Maize is very much used by some persons, but the pigs fattened 

 wholly on it are not so saleable, nor, at the present price of 

 barley, so profitable to the feeder. Little pigs will thrive well 

 on maize meal, provided it is steamed or boiled, then mixed 

 with skim milk and given new-milk warm. Some persons 

 strongly advocate the steaming or cooking of the corn or meal 



