For the first ten days, or a fortnight, the mother will generally be
able to support her litter without assistance, unless, as has been
already observed, she is weakly, or her young are too numerous; in
either of which cases they must be fed from the first. When the young
pigs are about a fortnight old, warm milk should be given to them. In
another week, this may be thickened with some species of farina; and
afterward, as they gain strength and increase in size, boiled roots and
vegetables may be added. As soon as they begin to eat, an open frame or
railing should be placed in the sty under which the little pigs can run,
and on the other side of this should be the small troughs containing
their food; for it never answers to let them eat out of the same trough
with their mother, because the food set before her is generally too
strong and stimulating for them, even if they should secure any of it,
which is, to say the least, extremely doubtful. Those intended to be
killed for sucking-pigs should not be above four weeks old; most kill
them for this purpose on the twenty-first or twenty-second day. The
others, excepting those kept for breeding, should be castrated at the
same time.