238 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



thing. Then the swill barrels should be cleaned out and scalded 

 to keep it clean. The hogs do not get enough of the solution in 

 drinking to hurt them. When you have hog cholera in the neigh- 

 borhood all of these things help to keep it down." 



The question of the tuberculin test coming up, the doctor gave 

 a description of the test, with which, of course, the majority of our 

 readers are familiar. 



EVENING SESSION. 

 The evening session opened with the following paper: 



CARE OF THE BROOD SOW AND HER LITTER, AND SELECTION 

 AND CARE OF THE HERD BOAR. 



E. E. IIENDERSOX, CENTRAL CITY, lA. 



When we received notice from your secretary that we had been assigned 

 the above subject and requested that we prepare a paper for this meeting, 

 it seemed to us that we had been given a very large subject. While this is 

 a very old subject, and one upon which volumes have been written, it is 

 always an interesting subject to the swine breeder. Most certainly the 

 key to success in swine breeding lies in your ability to properly care for 

 the brood sow and her litter, and in the selection and care of the herd 

 boar. Down at Ames, Iowa, people boast of having a man who by teaching 

 us the proper method in the selection and care of the seed and by his tire- 

 less energy and boundless enthusiasm has increased the corn crop of Iowa 

 by millions of bushels. What we need now is a man who will teach 

 us that uncounted thousands of bushels of this corn is worse than wasted 

 by improper feeding methods, and it is safe to say that the brood sow 

 gets a good share of this wasted food. After observing the method of 

 feeding the brood sow on many farms we have come to the conclusion that 

 corn is the principal, ad in far too many instances, the sole ration of the 

 brood sow during the winter months, which are the very months that she 

 needs proper food and care for the development of the young pigs. And 

 another very common mistake is the starvation method, more commonly 

 practiced than most of us are aware. The feeder (not breeder), finding 

 his sows getting too fat on his corn ration cuts down the ration, thus 

 starving the sow. This is a sure method of creating the "chicken eater" 

 and the "cannibal sow." This manner of feeding invariably produces "poor 

 luck" with pigs. We have always advocated liberal feeding of the brood 

 sow. There is too much written advice given to the hog breeder about the 

 danger of getting the brood sow too fat, and a very common and erroneous 

 belief is that the brood sow must be kept in thin flesh. Our observation 

 and advice is to feed liberally. Why starve the brood sow? Did you ever 

 observe that all creatures that are about to produce young will lay on flesh 

 rapidly if given the opportunity. We must not only feed the brood sow 

 to save her litter but must also aim to have her in good flesh in order that 



