128 SWINE IN AMERICA 



can suck a well-filled teat his outlook on the future will 

 be much improved. 



"If by any means the little pigs get a chill, and turn 

 cold, limp and damp," says Sanders Spencer, an English 

 authority, "a teaspoonful of gin will help to revive them, 

 and a suck at the teat will complete the cure if the 

 weather is not very severe. An attendant who has had 

 much experience will at once know when this is the 

 case by the peculiar cry which a chilled pig invariably 

 gives in the stage before it becomes quite helpless and 

 semi-unconscious. Should the act of parturition be a 

 very protracted one, it is advisable, in very cold weather 

 especially, to place those pigs which are dry to the teat, 

 lest the long-continued deprivation of their natural food 

 should result in their becoming chilled and troublesome 

 to get to suck. At times the pigs will appear to have but 

 little life in them when they are a long time coming into 

 the world; the attendant should then open the pig's 

 mouth and blow lustily down its throat, so that the lungs 

 become expanded, when the 3'-outhful grunter will quickly 

 recover." 



When sows are nervous and unquiet in farrowing it 

 will be necessary to keep the pigs away from the teats 

 until farrowing is over, unless, as stated, the weather is 

 severe and the labor unduly prolonged. Waiting for a 

 little time will not cause the pigs to suffer, provided 

 they are dry and warm. When" given the teats the 

 breeder should see that each pig receives its fair chance. 

 If a stronger pig makes a choice of a teat at which one 

 less vigorous is obtaining milk the latter should be given 

 an unused teat, as the pigs will generally continue to use 



