10 



Rearing and Fattening of Pigs. 



members of their own family to tend the pigs on the stubbles, 

 still imagine that there is a profit in it, but the general opinion 

 now is that the increased value of the pig after its course of 

 shacking is not equal to the expense, whilst a certain loss 

 attends the buying of pigs before harvest and selling them after 

 roaming in the stubbles. The present system of feeding the 

 pigs well from weaning, and fattening them ere they reach nine 

 months old, is not compatible with the old-fashioned store period 

 in the life of a pig. 



On the question of the length of time it is profitable to breed 

 from a sow, very divergent views are held. In several of the 

 northern counties a very wasteful system used to be general — 

 that of allowing a large proportion of the sow pigs to have one 

 litter of pigs and then to fatten off the young sows. If such a 

 plan be regularly followed it is most difficult to improve one's 

 stock of pigs, as it is not always possible to ascertain with any 

 certainty which young sows will mature into the most profitable 

 brood sows, as when all the young sows, good and bad alike, 

 are sacrificed, no improvement in the pigs can easily take place, 

 but a falling off in prolificacy and the milking qualities of the 

 sows is almost certain to be experienced. Only by the con- 

 tinued selection and retention for breeding purposes of the best 

 young sows can one's pig stock be improved. In most counties 

 there would also be the loss in the decreased value of the pork 

 from the young sow which had bred pigs, whilst the flesh from 

 the boar, which on this system is usually castrated and fatted 

 with the sows, would be still less saleable. 



The old-fashioned view that the pigs from yelts or young sows 

 are always inferior to those from mature sows, and should never 

 be kept for breeding purposes, is fast becoming very much 

 modified. My experience leads me to believe that equally 

 good boars and sows can be selected from the first as from the 

 subsequent litters of a sow, provided that the sow is of a tribe- 

 noted for its early development. Some of my best breeding and 

 exhibition pigs have been the produce of maiden sows. 



The question as to whether it be most profitable to purchase 

 young pigs or stores and to grow and fatten them, or to keep one 

 or more sows and sell the produce as weaners, stores, or as fat 

 pigs, must be settled by each pig-keeper in accordance with his 



