Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1895-04-18

| Yorkshire is also an excellent pig for
this purpose, but on high feeding it will
get too fat without making weight
enough. The pigs may be sold at three
weeks old, but the same feed for the
sows, spread over four weeks, makes a
heavier and more profitable pig. The
demand for these pigs is most active
about the holidays, from Thanksgiving
to Christmas, and just before the Lenten
season. This makes it possible to get
two litters in the year from each sow, and
thus add largely to the profit. The best
these may be kept up to 8 or 10 years
old, improving all the time. / have
reared eleven good pigs from a 5-year-
old Chester White SOW at one litter, and
the SOW dressed 274 pounds when
slaughtered in the fall after. A great
mistake. as l afterward found, was in
killing this sow.
The sows are bred in the spring, in
time to farrow in October and Novem-
Der, and the ninth day after narrowing
will accept the service of the boar
again. The pigs come at very con-
venient season, and the sows, having
been kept on clover pasture, are in the
best order for narrowing. After far
rowing they are fed, in a comfortable
roomy pen, we'll Uttered with leaves or
chat, upon warm slop made of buck
wheat and corn ground together. This
is given twice a day, and at noon a
good feed of boiled potatoes and crush
cd oats is given while it is slightly
warm. AS soon as the pigs will drink
=, litt1a nn,u'c ,,,i1lr fhic &c or;,- he,
in shallow pan in a small COM
partmcnt of the pen, divided off by
partition having spaces for them to
pass through. The milk is skinned
milk, warmed to 80 degrees, and about
pint day is given to each in three
feeds. Sow's milk is very rich, sur
passing that of the cow in this respect,
and it will bear diluting somewhat by
giving the young pigs the skinned
milk, which helps to avoid excessive
fairness. The pigs are dressed when
to weeks old, or may be shipped alive
by express, if not more than six hours
from market. | have sent them both
ways, and prefer to send them dressed
and nicely packed in clean straw in a
box. The pigs are scalded and scraped
in the usual manner, and disembowel-
ed: the feet are taken off at the first
joint. In packing, the limbs are folded
under the body so that the pig is in
good shape for presentation to pur-
chasers.
Perhaps some directions for cooking
this delicate morsel will be useful to
readers who have never made it part
of their bill of fare. The pig is either
roasted or baked, but baking is the
most convenient. The pig is stuffed as
follows: Five ounces bread-crumbs
two ounces chopped sage, two minced
onions. three ounces butter; salt and
pepper are mixed with white of egg to
bind them; the body of the pig is filled
and sown up. The fore legs are folded
backward and the hind legs forward
and skewered. 1t is brushed complete
ly over with the white of egg, and is
ready for the oven. No basting is re-
quired. An hour and half will bake
it. 1t is served as follows: Cut off the
head while it is in the pan, divide it
into two parts, and take out the brains,
which are added to the gravy. The pig
is then halved down the back, the
stitches are drawn out; the stuffing is
chopped up with the gravy and the
brains; the halves are laid on dish.
back to back, with the skin uppermost,
the halves of the head at the ends, and
the ears in the middle; or it may be cut
up in pieces in the pan, the pieces laid
on a hot dish, and the gravy and stuff
fling poured over the whole. 1t is a
most delicate dish, and by no means
too rich, even for a weak stomach, as 1t
is very easily digested.