Pigs : their Breeding and Management. 209 
the butcher, 10 guineas each for pens of pigs under 9 months 
old, and 14 guineas each under 14 months old. In addition 
to their being very fast-growing pigs, they have plenty of lean 
meat, have thick bellies- — a point of great importance to the 
bacon-curer — and well-developed hams. 
During the past twenty years I have bred some thousands of 
pigs, have tried the Large, Middle, and Small Whites, as well as 
the Berkshire — I still keep a herd of the latter at a separate home- 
stead. I have tried crosses with Berkshires, using a Large White 
boar, and have crossed the different varieties of the white races. 
The result of my experience is that none grow so rapidly or 
realize so much money in a given time as pure pigs of the Large 
White breed. 
Of all the animals of the farm, perhaps none have been so 
much neglected as the pig ; on thousands of farms, otherwise 
well managed, it has been deemed sufficient to provide pigs with 
the poorest and most wretched shelter — indeed, in many cases, no 
shelter at all. To expect that even a pig should thrive in a sty 
placed in the worst available position — sometimes with no ven- 
tilation — and much too small, and with no regard to aspect or 
change between summer and winter, is to look for what Nature 
refuses to supply. 
Then as to food: pigs are too generally regarded as simply 
the scavengers of the farmyard, left to fare ill or well as cir- 
cumstances may determine. It is true that improved treatment 
has been widely adopted, but erroneous notions still largely 
prevail that pig-rearing and feeding result in little but unprofit- 
ableness. It may be asked, how is it possible to expect success 
without the conditions that will conduce to it ? 
In connection with the successful rearing of any animals, 
unless the necessary appliances are provided, and unless the 
attention paid to their wants is guided by a knowledge as to 
their requirements, success is out of the question. Experience 
has, however, proved that in the case of pigs, with proper 
housing, judicious feeding, and the exercise of care in breeding, 
it may in ordinary times be made a source of profit. These 
animals do not, of course, require to be fed with the primest of 
food : they will thrive well on the inferior or damaged corn with 
a few roots, and some other suitable coarse food which on most 
farms is available. 
The breeding of swine has too often been looked upon with 
contempt and as beneath notice, so that whilst cattle and sheep 
have had the utmost care bestowed upon their breeding by 
thousands of skilful and wealthy agriculturists, pigs have been 
comparatively neglected. That much more attention should be 
paid to the selection of the breed than is at present the case, 
VOL. XVII. — S. S. P 
