prepared for her under cover, and well-protected from cold, if the weather be severe; or if warm, a range in a pasture with an open shed to retire to, is sufficient. Too much litter for bedding must be avoided, and no change or disturbance of the sow permitted, till two or three weeks after pigging, as the restlessness thereby produced may result in the loss of the pigs. The sow should be fed only with a small quantity of the lightest food or thin gruel, for two or three days, nor put on full feed for a week. If inclined to eat her pigs, she should be fed two or three times with raw pork or fresh meat. The pigs may be taught to crack oats or soaked corn after three weeks, and if provided with a trough inaccessible to the dam, they will soon learn to feed on milk and other food, preparatory to weaning. This may take place when they are 8 or 10 weeks old; and to prevent injury to the sow, let one or two remain with her a few days longer, and when finally removed, if her bag appears to be full, they may be allowed to drain the milk after 20 or 30 hours. The sow should be restricted to a light, dry diet for a few days at this period.
Management and Fattening.
There are but two objects in keeping swine, for breeding and for slaughter, and their management is consequently simple. Those designed for breeding, should be kept in growing condition, on light food, and have every advantage for exercise. Such as are destined exclusively for fattening, ought to be steadily kept to the object.
It is the usual, though a bad practice in this country, to let spring pigs run at large for the first 15 months, with such food as is convenient; and if fed at all, it is only to keep them in moderate growth till the second autumn. They are then put up to fatten, and in the course of 60 or 90 days are fed off and slaughtered. During this brief period, they gain from 50 to 100 per cent. more of dressed weight than in the 15 or 18 months preceding: nor even then do they yield a greater average weight than is often attained by choice, thrifty pigs, which have been well-fed from weaning to the age of 8 or 9 months.
Three pigs of the Bedford breed, when precisely 7½ months old, dressed 230, 235, and 238½ lbs. Two of the Berkshire and Leicester breeds, at 9 months, dressed 304 and 310 lbs. Three others of the Berkshire and Grass breeds, 7 months and 27 days old weighed 240, 250, and 257 lbs. net. Innume
rable instances could be adduced of similar weights, gained within the same time, with a good breed of animals under judicious treatment. We have no one accurate account of the food consumed, so as to determine the relative profit of short or long feeding. But that an animal must consume much more in 18 or 20 months to produce the same quantity of dressed meat, which is made by others of 8 or 9 months, does not admit of a doubt.
We have seen that an ox requires but little more than double the quantity of food to fatten, that is necessary for supporting existence. If we apply this principle to swine, and state the quantity of food which will fatten the pig rapidly, to be three times as great as for the support of life, we shall find that the pig will fatten in 7 months, on the same food he would consume to keep him alive for 21. This is based on the supposition that both animals are of equal size. But the pig that matures and is slaughtered at 7 months, has only a moderate capacity for eating. During the early stages of his growth, his size and the consequent incapacity of the digestive organs, prevent the consumption of the same quantity which the larger animal requires; and his accumulating fat, his limited respiration, consequent upon the compression of his lungs, and his indisposition to exercise, all conspire to keep the consumption of food within the smallest possible limit. This result, in the absence of any experiment, must be conjectural entirely; but we believe that experiments will show, that of two thrifty pigs from the same litter, one of which is properly fed to his utmost capacity for 7 months, and the other fed with precisely double the quantity of similar food for 21 months, the first will yield more carcass and of a better and more profitable quality than the latter, which has consumed 100 per cent. the most.
The food is only one item in this calculation. The oldest requires the most attention, is liable to more accidents and disease, besides the loss of interest. We are necessarily forced to the conclusion, that by far the cheapest mode of wintering pigs is in the pork-barrel. We can readily anticipate one objection to this practice, which is the want of food at the requisite season of the year to fatten them. This can be obviated, by reserving enough of the previous year's grain, to keep the animal in a rapidly thriving state, till the next crop matures sufficiently to feed.
In the rich corn regions, on its beginning to ripen, as it does in August, the fields are fenced off into suitable lots, and
large herds are successively turned into them, to consume the grain at their leisure. They waste nothing except the stalks, which in that region of plenty are considered of little value, and they are still useful as manure for succeeding crops; and whatever grain is left by them, leaner droves which follow, will readily glean. Peas, early buckwheat, and apples, may be fed on the ground in the same way.