Live Stock Breeders' Association. 223 



summer one will be surprised at the amount of alfalfa hay, prefera- 

 bly third to fifth cutting, that they will eat if it is kept clean by 

 using a rack that is adapted to their purposes. The cost of this 

 method of wintering will be from 2 to 4 cents per sow daily. 



At time of farrowing the sow should have been used to the 

 farrowing quarters for at least two or three days previous. This 

 pen should have preferably a hard, smooth clay floor with a bushel 

 or two of fine chaff for a bed, but if this is not possible, the next 

 best floor is a pine floor. Cement should never be used, because 

 it conducts heat away so rapidly as to chill the newly born pig. 

 In any case there should be a projecting rail around the pen six 

 inches from the wall and five or six inches from the floor, under 

 which the little pigs may be crowded and not smothered when the 

 mother lies close to the wall. Provided there is no difficulty the 

 sow is best let alone and not disturbed. 



After farrowing, while yet in a fevered condition, the sow 

 should be fed but little feed, and that of a laxative, cooling nature. 

 The drink should have the chill removed. For food, give a little 

 milk with a handful of middlings. She does not require much 

 feed, as the demands upon her are but little, and one should not be 

 too anxious to get her on full feed. The rations should be increased 

 from this amount very slowly and from a week to ten days taken 

 to get on full feed. 



From now on all our energies are applied directly toward 

 growing the pig and then marketing him. We are to see direct 

 results from all our thoughtfulness of afore. We planned for 

 large litters, because we believed that prolific dams would transmit 

 some of their vitality to their offspring, and we would have more 

 •thrifty and better feeders than those from small litters. Now we 

 have them, and upon the first three months' care and feeding de- 

 pends our future success. Give a ration of corn 1 part, shorts 1 

 part, and bran 1 part, for full feed, equal in weight to four or five 

 percent of the weight of a mature sow in fair condition. A ration 

 of this sort, with plenty of sunshine and exercise, will never produce 

 pigs with the thumps or scours. If bran and shorts are too high 

 in price, the corn may be balanced up with oilmeal or tankage 2 

 parts, corn 8 parts, and alfalfa meal 2 parts. At about three weeks 

 of age the pigs will begin to eat a little from the trough, and should 

 then be provided with a creep. By having a creep for the pigs, feed 

 especially suited for them can be kept quite constantly before them 

 and utilized by them to a much better advantage than by gorging 

 the sow. Place within the enclosure a low, flat-bottomed trough 



