ng ones. Very
slight observation will reveal the marked difference in the comfort of a
pig which has had a meal of warm or of cold food. In the former case the
pig will return to its nest and is soon lost in sleep, whilst the poor
beggar which has had its breakfast on cold and occasionally frozen food
will be the picture of misery and shaking with cold, much of its natural
heat produced from its last meal being required to warm up the food ere
its digestive organs can commence work. Coal and wood are at all times
less expensive to warm up food than the animal fat which is burned in
nature's lamp.

Provision should have been made for the supply of some kind of vegetable
food which pigs require, particularly when in confinement. Kohl rabi,
swedes and cabbages, of which the first named is the best, are all
suitable, but the most nourishing are artichokes, which like the three
former should be fed raw, and potatoes which should be cooked ere they
are fed to the pigs. The difference in the feeding value between cooked
and uncooked potatoes is great. It is scarcely necessary to point out
that all vegetable food fed to pigs should have been protected from
frost.

The operations connected with pig-keeping are very similar in February
to those of the preceding month. Towards the end of the month kohl rabis
will have lost much of their feeding value. On sunny days a run out for
a few minutes will be of great benefit to the young pigs over a month
old; as soon as they cease to gallop about they should be shut up again,
as if allowed to lie down they may contract a chill which might result
in "cramp" or rheumatism. Sows with litters two or three weeks old
should be allowed out of the sty each morning and afternoon for a short
time.

The month of March brings with it an extra amount of work for the
pig-keeper, who will now think of selling the pigs born early in January
unless he purposes to keep them on and have them ready for sale as fat
pigs in harvest time, when there is always a good demand for medium
sized fat pigs. Anyway the sow pigs intended for breeding will have been
picked out and earmarked, this last should not be neglected after the
others have been spayed.

This last operation has of late years been much neglected; this is a
great mistake, as experiments have clearly proved that on an average sow
pigs which have been spayed will make an equal gain in live weight on 5
per cent less food than will an unspayed sow p