9 



Growth of Pigs Before and After Weaning. 



On fanns where dairying is an iiniportant industry and 

 where there is an abundance of skim milk for sow and 

 litter, it is not unusual for the brood sow to nurse a 

 litter of pigs without herself losing weight. In the 

 absence of skim milk we find that the sow generally 

 loses in weight, however bountiful the supply of grain 

 and green material. 



For example in the period between farrowing, Feb- 

 ruary 24, 1809, and the beginning of the experiment 

 April 1, a sow lost 29.0 pounds, and her litter of 7 

 pigs gained 67.3 pounds. During this time sow and 

 pigs were kept in a bare lot and fed a mixture of equal 

 weights of ground cowpeas and a very coarse grade 

 of rice meal, which in this case consisted largely of 

 ground rice chaff. The amount of this mixture con- 

 sumed in this time was 273 pouuids. 



This sow and her seven pigs were confined by means 

 of hurdles or movable panels on a field where vetch 

 and turf oat-s grew together. At the end of a five weeks' 

 period, May 6, the sow was removed and the pigs, now 

 10 weeks old, were continued on the same character of 

 pasture three weeks longer, or until May 27. The herbage 

 was more tender and succulent in the earlier periods, 

 though its weight per acre was greater in the later pe- 

 riod. The grain fed to the sow and pigs while they 

 grazed on vetch pasture was com meal. 



