lks.

"After they have lost the name of _lactantes_ the shoats are called
_nefrendes_ because they are not yet able to break down (_frendere_
that is _frangere_) the bean stalks. _Porcus_ is the ancient Greek
name for them but is fallen into disuse, for the Greeks now call them
[Greek: choiros].

"While she is giving suck the sow should be watered twice a day to
promote the flow of milk. A sow should bear as many pigs as she has
teats: if she has less it is considered that she is unprofitable, but
if more, a prodigy. In this respect there is the ancient tradition
that the sow of Aeneas bore thirty white (_albos_) pigs at
Lavinium,[133] which portended that after thirty years the inhabitants
of Lavinium would found the town of Alba: indeed, vestiges of this sow
and of her pigs may still be seen at Lavinium where there is a brazen
image of them now in the public square, and the true body of the sow
is shown by the priests, preserved in pickle.

"Sows are able at first to suckle eight little pigs, but as they grow
larger half of them are usually taken away by experienced swineherds,
because the sow cannot supply milk enough for all, and too many pigs
fed together do not prosper in any event. A sow should not be driven
out of the stye for ten days after having her litter except for
water, but after that time she is permitted to graze in a paddock so
conveniently near at hand that she may return to the stye frequently
to suckle the pigs. When the pigs are large enough they are permitted
to follow the sow to pasture, but at home they should be penned apart
from the sow and fed by themselves until they overcome their yearning
for the dam, which usually happens in ten days. The swineherd should
train his shoats to do every thing at the sound of the trumpet. This
training is begun by letting the shoats hear the trumpet outside
their pens and then at once come out to a place where barley has been
scattered broad cast (for thus less is wasted than if the feed is
put in heaps and more of the shoats can get to it easily). By such
education it is possible to collect pasturing hogs at the sound of a
trumpet and prevent their being lost when scattered in the woods.[134]

"Boars are altered most successfully when they are a year old, but in
no case should this be done when they are less than six months old.
After the operation they are no longer called boars, but barrows.

"Concerning the health of swine, I will say one thing only