i2 Rearing and Fattening oe Pigs. 



very simple way of reducing the somewhat strong aroma from 

 the pig-sty is to have the ashes thrown into it each day ; its 

 occupants will pick out all the largest cinders and convert them 

 into pork, or they will act as a medicine, and so keep the pigs 

 in better health, whilst the remainder and the dust will absorb 

 the extra moisture and store up the richer portions of the manure. 

 Again, the ashes will, after a sojourn in the pig-sty, prove beneficial 

 to all kinds of soil, especially to gardens having a tenacious or 

 clay soil ; this will dig easier, work more readily, and grow better 

 crops after being dressed with ashes from the pig-sty. 



In some districts store pigs are run on for several months 

 merely for the purpose of consuming the garden and allotment 

 refuse. The cost of so keeping a pig or two is certainly not 

 great, but the profit in pig-keeping, where well carried on, is 

 generally in proportion to the outlay in labour, or money on 

 foods ; besides, the general opinion now favours a quick return. 

 This system appears to be particularly applicable to the 

 breeding and fatting of live stock, especially pigs, since so 

 large a proportion of the food goes merely to the up-keep 

 of the pig ; so that if we extend the fatting process or the 

 life period of the pig to, say, nine months, when by management 

 and care the pig could be made to attain an equal weight, when 

 six months old, we lose at least one-third more of that food 

 which is required merely to keep the pig alive or enable it to 

 exist. This is a very important point, as in the up-keep of the 

 older pig a rather larger proportion of the food is utilised. 



Again, it has been clearly proved that young growing pigs 

 will utilise considerably more of the ingredients of the food on 

 which they are fed than will older and full-grown pigs. The 

 differences are clearly shown in Henry's Feeds and Feeding, a 

 book in which much practical knowledge is collected. It is 

 there shown that pigs of about 35 lb. weight required 293 lb. 

 of food for 100 lb. gain, whilst pigs of 78 lb., 128 lb., 174 lb., 

 226 lb., 271 lb., and 320 lb., needed 400 lb., 437 lb., 482 lb., 

 498 lb., 511 lb., and 535 lb. respectively to make the same in- 

 crease. As these are the results of over 500 carefully-conducted 

 trials, it is impossible to over-rate their importance. 



The fatting of a pig is thought to be within the power of any- 

 one, provided there be a pig and a sufficiency of suitable food ; 



