THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART XI. 651 



weight slowly up till farrowing time. Keep corn away from them as much 

 as possible at this period. Feed as much green feed as you possibly can 

 at all times. Feed slops made from middlings, shorts, poor grade flour 

 and bran meal, plenty of oats green and soaked and it is well to scatter 

 some loose over the pasture in winter and keep them busy and give plenty 

 of exercise. Oats, barley and rye ground together make a good feed for 

 brood sows. Pumpkins are fine for brood sows this time of the years. 

 Feed regular and in a good, clean place have plenty of pure fresh water 

 handy at all times for the hogs to drink. Keep salt and ashes mixed and 

 in a handy place so the hogs will have free access to it at all times. Do 

 not feed all the different kinds of medicine that people tell you that are 

 good for hogs. Some will kill. Keep your hogs healthy by proper feeding, 

 plenty of exercise, keeping their pens well cleaned and disinfected. Keep 

 the lice down if possible. Do not allow your hogs to sleep in a draught 

 of wind. Do not allow diseased hogs on the place. Keep the hogs on clover, 

 blue grass or rape pastures as long as you can. Feed a balanced ration and 

 plenty of bone and muscle forming food. Get one or more good farm jour- 

 nals, read and study the experience of others and tell your experience. If 

 any one here would like to take the best hog journal that I know any thing 

 about I would cite you to The American Swine Herd, published at Chicago. 

 It is a monthly journal, comes full of hog news and can be had in clubs 

 for 25 cents per year. There are several good hog papers and any of I 

 can be had at a reasonable price. 



We should be careful not to keep too many brood sows in one place. 

 It is better to have them in several places for their health. Keep track 

 of farrowing time and be willing to set up nights if needed. Get sow used 

 to her farrowing place by shutting her in it for about ten days or two 

 weeks beforehand. Have her gentle and quiet and avoid all noise possible. 

 Be ready to give aid if needed or take the pigs to the house if needed. Feed 

 sparingly for a few days but of the same feed as sow has been used to. Do 

 not feed for at least twelve hours and then feed sparingly at first, gradu- 

 ally increasing but always feed intelligently and regularly. Remember 

 that 40 per cent of all pigs farrowed die before they reach the markets. 

 This is why the hog business is uncertain. What we should do is to study 

 preventives. It is much easier to prevent t^an *n c n re. '"' 

 best, surest and cheapest cure for a great many diseases. Too many hate 

 to use it. Our lesson is, study preventives and if you do prevent you will 

 not need a remedy for cure. I had the disease once in my herd but I am 

 sure it was by not having hogs in the proper condition to guard off the 

 disease when they came in contact with the disease or wh( i the ,; •ea-e 

 was brought to the herd. I believe the diseases are brought on by im- 

 proper care, improper feeding, poor places to sleep, one kind of food and 

 not a variety of feeds, lack of plenty of fresh water, kept in a small, muddy 

 pen where exercise would be impossible for them. In-! ; ; effe I 



on bringing on disease. The use of small and immature breeding stock, 

 a radical change from one kind of feed to another and the feeding of all 

 kinds of medicine that some people tell you will cure and keep your herd 

 in first-class condition. I believe it will pay any good, up-to-date farmer 



