376 GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF PIGS 



conceive. October, November, and December pigs do not 

 usually thrive as well as those born at other periods of the year. 



All pig-houses should be warm in cold weather. No 

 animal of the farm is more injuriously affected by cold or 

 damp than the pig. Warmth may be given by placing a 

 thatched hurdle or other warm covering 3 ft. or 4 ft. above 

 the platform on which the pigs should lie. " Sows " should 

 be managed so as to have the young born when the weather 

 is neither too hot nor too cold, and ready at the season of the 

 year when there is plenty of food. Spring and early autumn 

 are the usual periods when two litters a year are produced. 



A few days before farrowing, a sow should be put by 

 herself into a sty, the floor of which is about 10 feet square, 

 fitted round with a strong rail or plank placed horizontally, 

 projecting a foot from the wall, and elevated 8 or 9 inches 

 from the floor, to prevent her lying close to the wall and 

 smothering the young pigs by overlying them. The plank 

 also forms a protection from cold in frosty weather. One 

 section should be floored by a raised wooden platform of 

 I -inch boards to keep the bed dry. A raised area in the 

 concrete floor is sometimes substituted, as, if it is not attended 

 to, and the platform regularly lifted and cleaned underneath, 

 the sty may become unwholesome. The person who attends 

 at farrowing should act with patience and gentleness, and 

 he ought to take charge of the sow from the time she is 

 separated from the others. The place should be well littered 

 with straw cut into 6-inch lengths. The sow takes up straw 

 in her mouth to make a bed within a few hours of farrowing. 

 The operation of farrowing may extend over hours, but the 

 sow requires no assistance : she is very sick and quiet, and 

 should lie all the time. It is a rare occurrence to see a pig 

 dropped while the sow is standing. When restless, she is 

 very troublesome and liable to crush the young pigs. Some- 

 times they are put at once into a warm basket to be safer 

 than by the mother's side. They should have a suck as 

 soon as possible, and be watched day and night for three 

 days. A safety-lamp may with advantage be left hanging 

 at night after this for some time. The food of the mother 

 should be sloppy, and for the first two or three weeks after 

 farrowing largely composed of sharps and bran, but after- 

 wards made more nutritious by the addition of barley-, oat-, 



