or from other natural cause), to
remain on the sow for a longer period than about eight weeks. Some
persons will keep the pigs on the sow until they are nearly three months
old in the belief that both sow and pigs are benefited, and that the
pigs can be kept quite as cheaply if not more so when unweaned than
weaned. They also claim that the sow is so much stronger and better
fitted to prepare for another litter. Experiments have been carried out
in the United States which go far to prove that the first of these two
claims is founded on fact; and it has further been demonstrated that
certain foods can be fed to the sow without affecting the thrift and
health of the pigs which could not with safety be fed to the latter
direct, yet when fed through the sow the pigs will thrive on the milk
produced therefrom. It is entirely a question of the cost of a rest for
the sow during the extra two or three weeks, and the benefit to the
sow and her pigs.

One occasionally sees in the press a claim for what is considered to be
a great achievement in that some one has bred three litters of pigs from
one sow within the year. There really is something wonderful in this
since of the fifty-two weeks constituting a year, the sow would be
carrying her pigs some forty-eight weeks. This would allow only four
weeks for the two litters of pigs to be suckled, and this would also
include the few days between the pigs being weaned and the sow coming in
heat. Apart from the natural difficulty of successfully breeding three
litters of pigs from one sow within twelve months, there exists a far
greater possibility of loss rather than of gain from unduly hurrying on
the arrival of each litter of pigs from a sow, especially of the
profitable kind of sow.

Some forty years since when Small Whites, Small Blacks, and short thick
Berkshires were fashionable, the number of pigs in each litter was few,
and the number reared still fewer, owing to the limited quantity of milk
furnished by the sow. Now, the Large Black, the Large White, the Middle
White, the Lincolnshire Curly Coat, the old Gloucester Spots, the
Tamworth, the Cumberland, and even the sows of most of the local breeds
of pigs are expected to rear nine or ten pigs each litter. Even if it
were possible for a sow to bring forth three litters within the year,
she could not possibly do justice to them either before or after the
piglings arrived in this world; and further, the life of such a sow
would