132 



SWINE IN AMERICA 



Her feverish condition will cause thirst, notwithstanding 

 the fact that she may ha\e an abundance of sloppy food, 

 which will not prevent her needing water. In case the 

 sow shows signs of wanting to eat in the first 24 hours 

 after farrowing she may be given a little thin slop or 

 gruel of shorts and bran or of oatmeal, warmed, if in 

 cold weather. The feed for the following four or five 

 days should be light, mainly a thin slop — oats, shorts, 

 bran, but no corn. Some clover or alfalfa hay at this 

 time may be relished. The sow should be gradually 

 brought to full feed, taking a week to ten days to ac- 

 complish this. The third day after farrowing is fre- 

 quently a critical period, and until that time is past her 

 appetite should be watched carefully, and she should be 

 supplied with but a light ration. The water supply in 

 reach should not be stinted. 



For the first weeks of a pig's life the mother's milk 

 is its drink as well as food, and, therefore, in caring for 

 suckling sows it should be the aim to so feed them that 

 milk of only medium richness will be furnished instead 

 of a limited supply of that which is extremely rich, the 

 latter being less healthful and more liable to cause 

 thumps, scours and unsatisfactory growth. It is only 

 a law of nature that pigs should make more economical 

 gains through the milk of the dams than in any other 

 way, and it is also true that the sow will furnish nourish- 

 ment for her young at less cost for the raw material than 

 any other animal on the farm. A sow's milk is rich in 

 solid matter, which amounts to 17 to 20 per cent. On a 

 comparative basis of 1,000 pounds lixc weight a cow 



