When peat moss was first introduced it was strongly recommended for the bedding of pigs. It was claimed for it that it was a far better absorbent of moisture than sawdust, and that its manurial value was much greater. It is probable that both claims are founded on fact, as sawdust is of comparatively no value as a manure. But there exists one serious objection to the use of peat moss as litter for young pigs. It is that the pigs are given to eat it, that it causes severe attacks of indigestion, and often the death of the pig eating it.
Of late years the spaying of the sow pigs has ceased to be general. The causes of this neglect may be several, amongst them the dislike of trouble, but perhaps the main reason is that the so-called store period of the pig's life is now so much shorter than in the olden days, and consequently the loss of food, and the risk of the arrival of unexpected litters of pigs are less, from the repeated periods of heat, indeed under the present or recent conditions of pig keeping a large proportion of the pigs are killed ere they have become sufficiently developed to be troublesome in this respect.
Still, there is little doubt that the castrating and spaying of young pigs at about the age of six weeks, or before they have been weaned from the sow is advisable and the cost of the operation is well repaid. An unspayed sow pig becomes a nuisance in company with other pigs, and when it is put up to fatten will make no progress on some three or four days during each three weeks when she ordinarily becomes in heat.
In addition to her own waste of time she will, if penned with others, be continually worrying her mates and preventing them from resting and thriving.
Until recently another objection was taken to the unspayed sow pig, it was that if she were killed during the period of œstrum that great difficulty would be experienced in curing the meat properly, and that signs of her heated condition would be noticed in the mammary glands in the form of dark globules of what was considered to be blood, but investigation carried out at the University Farm at Cambridge by Messrs. Russell and Kenneth Mackensie have proved that the discoloration and the consequent loss in value of a certain portion of the belly of a side of bacon is not due to the pig having been in a state of heat at the time of its slaughter, but to an excess of pigment, noticeable only amongst coloured pigs. Thus, the globules would be of a dark colour when the bacon was from a pig of a black colour, and red from the pigs of the Tamworth breed. This shows another cause of the marked preference of the bacon curers for pigs of a white colour in the manufacture of the highest priced bacon.
CHAPTER XII
HOUSING OF PIGS
In the general management of pigs there are many points on which improvements might be effected without any very considerable amount of trouble or expense. Far too frequently this neglect or want of care and thought is observable in the housing of pigs. Many of the sties in the country districts are neither wind nor water tight, and they are far too often in a most unsanitary condition, indeed in such a disgraceful state that some excuse was afforded for the drastic, if injudicious order of the sanitary authorities which prohibited the erection of a pigsty within from sixty to one hundred feet of a dwelling house. Undoubtedly it would have been wiser to have permitted the keeping of pigs within a much shorter distance of the house only so long as the necessary steps were taken to prevent a nuisance or a risk of the residents in the house suffering in health. The proximity of a pigsty to a house can be rendered perfectly innocuous with ordinary care, and the cottager not be deprived of very considerable advantages not only in making a profit, but in the provision of manure for his allotment or garden which will benefit greatly from its application.
The mistakes or want of care in the erection of pigsties is by no means confined to the owners of cottages or small holdings, as a considerable proportion of the piggeries on which great outlay is expended are equally as unsuitable if not so insanitary. Even in so-called model buildings the piggery has often been the last thing thought of; the stables, the cow house, etc., have been conveniently placed for feeding the occupants, for air, light, and sun, and then the piggery has been placed in whatever spot may have been left unoccupied, and as this generally happens to be on the northern side of the buildings, the unhappy pigs are deprived of the rays of the sun, which are to them quite as necessary, if not more so, than to any others of our domesticated animals.
This same want of sun, and the exposure to cold is noticeable in only a lesser degree in those buildings which comprise a double row of sties with a passage down the centre, a store and a cooking and mixing house at one end, and an exercise or feeding yard adjoining. It matters not whether the building be placed north or south, or east or west, one half of the sties have a wrong aspect; even if the sties facing the west can be said to possess one. The trouble is still greater with the system of having a yard attached to each sty. The north or east wind renders the sties with such an aspect a most uncomfortable and unhealthy place for young pigs during more than half the year, whilst older pigs cannot thrive on the same amount of food as they would if their quarters were comfortable. Apart from the waste of food which results from these draughty and cold sties, the latter are the chief cause, with injudicious feeding, of that most troublesome ailment amongst pigs, rheumatic gout, or, as it is commonly termed, cramp. How very draughty and uncomfortable these sties are which have an open yard attached, and an inlet at all times usable, can be readily discovered in cold and windy weather by noticing the position in which the occupant has made its bed. This will be found not on the highest part of the sty, which will be opposite to the opening into the yard, but in the corner next to the opening, since in this position it is less exposed to the cold wind which rushes into the sty through the opening.