352 ' IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



k)ok out. The best thing we have found is a lime-sulphur solution — 

 the same thing that you put on your trees to kill scale. We buy this 

 from a horticultural house and mix it with about eight parts of water, 

 and dip the sows in that. Two or three applications usually are suffi- 

 cient to rid the hogs of that trouble. Crude toil is good; nicotine is 

 good. You can buy this black leaf nicotine from tobacco companies 

 and mix it with a sufficient amount of water, and put your hogs in 

 that. The nicotine is prisonous to the mange and kills it out, and if 

 you give these sows a good soaking, this parasite is a gone gosling. 



How about worms? We don't notice brood sows manifesting the 

 worm tnouble as we do little pigs. Little pigs, which have small di- 

 gestive apparatus, show it plainly. Their bellies and abdomen sag 

 down, and they walk feebly, and they root each other. Worms make a 

 bigger showing with them and are much more disastrous. But an old 

 brood sow can have a hundred or two hundred Wjorms and you not no- 

 tice it. But if she is carrying them and dropping the eggs, the little 

 fellows, when they are born, will be fit subjects for these worms to 

 take up their new home. Thus we want to treat our brood sows for 

 worms if we are suspicious that they have them, and the best thing I 

 know of is santonin and calomel. There are a lot of remedies on the 

 market. Santonin is expensive, but hogs are expensive al&o. I bought 

 some santonin at wholesale the other day for $2.50 an ounce. I had 

 bids from four different concerns running from $2.50 up to $5.00; so I 

 took the cheapest, and we noticed nio difference particularly. When 

 drugs are fairly scarce, often there is a great variation in the markets, 

 and it is well to get prices from three or four different firms. It is 

 not at all like normal times. We mix the santonin and calomel to- 

 gether and feed it with the regular feeds. Some advise that you starve 

 these sows fior twelve hours before giving it to them. The dose is any- 

 where from five to fifteen grains for a brood sow. There are 480 grains 

 in an ounce, so you see it is not so very expensive after all. There is 

 no set rule for the dose; you can use your own judgment. I would not 

 in any case give more than fifteen grains to any animal, and very sel- 

 dom over ten. To a young sucking pig, four or five grains; for a 200 

 to 250-pound sow, ten grains tp a 300 to 350-pound sow, eight to twelve 

 grains, depending on how she looks and on whether you are a little 

 tight that day. If you have your sows in a group and feed them tank- 

 age (meat meal, preferably), mix it up thoroly, and if they feed pro- 

 piortionately they will get their proportionate amount. There is an in- 

 strument on the market to use for giving capsules to pigs. You put 

 your dose in the capsule and then you simply open the pig's mouth 

 and shoot this in. Then you are sure every one getr its share. But ir 

 you mix up ten pounds of feed and you have five sows, they will get 

 their share apiece. 



We should have these sows not only healthy, but robust and strong. 

 You can have a healthy sow, but a weak one. Some people are as 

 healthy as they can be, but they couldn't go out and djo a day's work in 

 the fields. The brood sow should be of good formation, have abun- 

 dant length and width, and that width should be carried equally from 



