Management and Feeding in Winter 37 



Water. 



The water supply should be clean and fresh and easily 

 accessible. Pregnant sows and young pigs especially 

 require considerable water to satisfy their needs. When 

 the water is ice-cold, the tendency is for hogs to drink 

 less than they need. Furthermore, that which is drunk 

 must be raised to the temperature of the body, which 

 necessitates the sacrifice of considerable food energy 

 when the weather is cold. When the water is given with 

 the feed, it will pay to heat it. Ordinarily, the effort 

 should be made to get them to take as much water as they 

 will. Patented watering devices should be cleaned fre- 

 quently, for they sometimes become contaminated and 

 may prove a constant source of infection. The water 

 in such devices should be kept as warm as possible by 

 banking manure about them or by the use of heaters. 



Exercise. 



The amount of exercise which the pregnant sows receive 

 during the winter bears an intimate relationship to the 

 strength and activity of the pigs which they produce in 

 the spring, to the ease of pigging, and the promptness of 

 their recovery, and to their general thrift and health 

 during the gestation period. The reliability of the boar 

 during the breeding season is conditioned on his oppor- 

 tunity for taking exercise throughout the seasons when he 

 is not in breeding service. Neglect of this during the 

 winter is often responsible for disappointing results in the 

 breeding season. The young gilts and boars must have 

 exercise if they are to attain the healthy development re- 

 quired for successful lives in the breeding herd. The ex- 

 periences of hog-men are so unanimous on these points that 



