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of feeding meal to sows while on pasture for a time before they farrow can be 

 readily appreciated, as it prevents a violent change in their ration. The sow 

 should also be given a chance and encouraged to take exercise. 



Farrowing. — The farrowing pen should be dry, well ventilated, and free from 

 draughts. It is a good plan to provide the pen with a guard rail made of two by 

 eight incli planks fastened with their edges against the sides of the pen a little 

 above the bed. These prevent the sow from lying against the partition, and lessen 

 the danger of injury to the little pigs, which often find the space under the guard 

 a very convenient refuge. 



There is a difference of opinion as to the amount of bedding which should be 

 used, some maintaining that the sow should be liberally supplied with bedding, 

 and others that the bedding should be limited. The writer's experience is that 

 active sows in comparatively light condition can generally be trusted with a liberal 



Fig. 1.5.— Chester White sow, a prize winner at American shows. 



amount of bedding, but sows which are in high condition, or which are at all 

 clumsy, had better be given only a moderate amount of cut straw. 



Sows should not be allowed to farrow in a large piggery where many other 

 pigs are kept, unless it is warm weather and windows and doors can be left open. 

 The air of a piggery where many pigs are kept seems to be poisonous to little pigs, 

 when the weather is cold and the doors and windows have to be kept closed, in 

 spite of ordinarily good methods of ventilation. 



The writer has had good results from sows farrowing in portable single pens 

 placed in a sheltered yard, even in zero weather. Tarred paper was put on the 

 studding, and the pen tightly boarded outside and inside. A ceiling of slats was 

 put in the pen, and the space above the ceiling stuffed with straw. A window in 

 the side, a small ventilator running from the ceiling out through the roof, and a 

 lighted lantern hung in the pen on the coldest days when the pigs were very small, 

 completed the equipment. The air in this pen always felt dry and comfortable, 

 and the pigs all kept healthy and thrifty. (See under " Portable Pens," Part VI. > 



