Management of Berkshire Pigs. 
683 
purchased usually going back in condition for a time, to say 
nothing about the risk of introducing disease. 
To make the best bacon, I like to start with pigs about 
four or five months old that have been running at large and 
just kept growing. Such pigs will stand being shut up, and 
forced on at once. Nearly all barley meal can be used at this 
age, and quite all before they are fat, if necessary. Nothing 
makes such good bacon, especially if mixed with boiled potatoes 
and parsnips ; and nothing can be cheaper. 
For porkers up to about five score the pigs must not be 
allowed to lose an ounce of flesh , for the quicker they can be fed 
off the more profit there is attached to them. Skim-milk here 
comes in as the quickest and best feed. 
There are a few drawbacks in the fattening of hogs, loss of 
appetite through over-feeding being very common, notably where 
the feeder is too eager to cram on weight at any risk, and thus 
causing surfeit. A dose of powdered sulphur, from one to two 
ounces according to the size of the pig, given in milk, fasting, 
will generally put things right again. Another very annoy- 
ing complaint is cramp : this, I feel quite sure, is due to the 
situation of the sties, and not to the diet, as many affirm. I 
have known sties that invariably gave cramp to any pigs put 
into them ; yet when these same pigs were put into other places 
they speedily recovered. In fact, a certain row of piggeries always 
produced cramp, whilst those on the opposite side of the yard 
never did. This makes me rather inclined to the belief that it 
is the flooring that originates it ; yet, strange to say, some 
apparently dry floors produce cramp, while others which seem to 
be damper do not. Consequently, cramp would appear to be 
due to something in the land upon which the sties are built. 
I fear that, in these brief notes, I have added nothing fresh 
to what has been often written before. Yet I feel how utterly 
I have failed to bring home to the keeper of pigs the extreme 
pleasure and satisfaction it has given me to watch over and 
manage a large herd of Berkshires. If, however, this paper 
should induce only one or two to take a deeper interest in the 
animal that supplies the table with such dainties, my object will 
have been gained ; for I have yet to discover any animal that 
pays more for its keep than a good-natured brood sow. 
Edxey Hayter. 
