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 [oe]strum 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