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tares, for the summer and autumn months, and the like ex-tent of ground, for turnips and yams, during the winter andspring months, the whole not exceeding L. 20 in value, thestock of swine that we are to recommend may be amply sup-ported.” Forty swine, the produce of two breeding sows,are to be reared and fattened every year, which, at so low aprice as 50 s. each, would give the sum required; the breed-ing sows to be fed when three years’ old, and a young onereared every year to supply the place of the oldest j four-sows would thus be on hand at a time, which would producemore than forty pigs; but the surplus are to be sold as theyare weaned. “We have,” says the same writer, “ for anumber of years, kept a stock of swine in the way now recom-mended. They go at large in the court or yard belonging tothe farm, and receive a feeding of offal grain in the morn-ing, and of yams or turnips in the evening, and the meat fedin this way has constantly drawn the highest price.” Theclover and tares will keep the stock in a growing state to-wards the latter end of summer and during harvest, whichare the most critical periods for carrying on a stock of swine,and milk and whey during these seasons are in considerablequantities at every farm-house. It is most judiciously re-marked in conclusion, that “ to make as much profit fromcattle or sheep as is mentioned, requires a great advance ofmoney; but in the article of swine hardly any is necessary,while most part of the articles consumed cannot in any other-way be converted to beneficial purposes
Swine , it has been already observed, are very apt to getinto forbidden ground; upon tillage farms, they are seldom,for this reason, permitted to go at large, unless sometimesfor a few weeks on the stubbles. The nurhber kept by anyone farmer, is not often so large as to afford the expence ofconstant herding, nor so small as to admit of their beingconfined by a tether, as is sometimes done with the cottager’s
* Brown’s Treatise on Rural Affairs, vol. ii, p. 239. et seqq.