866 
ILLUSTRATED STOCK DOCTOB. 
them from rooting is vicious in the extreme. We have never practiced It 
at all with any hogs. To remain healthy they must root some. It ia 
their natural instinct. If the pasture be clover, and in the rotation to ha 
followed with other crops, the damage by rooting will be light in com- 
parison with the health of the swine. Loss at one point will be fully compen* 
sated at the other. 
When the sow is near her time her food should be of such a nature a* 
to keep up her strength and give due sustenance to the young but not . 
stimulating. When the pigs are three or five days old, and danger 
of inflammation is past, feed liberally, and with rich sloppy food to 
induce a good flow of milk. But under no circumstances feed so as to 
make the young pigs unduly fat. Skimmed milk and the mill refuse of 
wheat, what is known as mill feed, is best, but in the absence of thia 
potatoes, pumpkins and other roots in the Fall, or boiled beets in the 
Spring, with com meal enough to keep the 60W in good heart, makes 
admirable food. When there is grass to be had, the sow should be 
allowed all she will eat. Thus you may get the very best results both ia 
the health and continued usefulness of the sow, and the constitutional 
growth and vigor of the young pigs. 
Weaning, 
The young pig as we have shown is born ready for work. That is, II 
has teeth that in a short time are competent to grind and prepare food 
for the stomach. We should wean at six weeks old, allow all the skim* 
med milk and butter-milk possible to the growing pigs, and with it aftef 
the pig is two months old, a fair proportion of ground wheat skimmiugs, 
or light rye, barley, etc., ground and made into mush, to be mixed with 
the milk as a tolerably thin slop. Teach the pig early to eat grass, and 
at three months old he will take care of himself on good pasture with all 
the corn he will eat at night. By this means the older stock are early freed 
from care of the young and beoome ready for other uses. 
At the age of two or three weeks the pigs should be gelded, so they 
may be well over the difficulty before weaning time. Keep rings out of 
the noses of young pigs. They have been the means of spreading con- 
tagious diseases. We prefer slitting the cartilage of the nose, or cutting a 
notch in it at the time of gelding, if it is absolutely necessary that they 
do not root. At all events it is time enough to do the ringing the second 
year, if to be kept over. But by proper care if the litters of pigs coma 
early, any of the better breeds may be turned off the next Christmas, and 
from this time until the first of February, become fat, and of as heavy 
weight as is profitable in the markets* 
