Management and Feeding in Winter 63 



essential, especially during the last weeks of pregnancy. 

 When feeding meals and supplements like shorts, bran, 

 tankage, or oil-meal, it is often thought better to feed as a 

 slop, as less is wasted or blown away. It is often most con- 

 venient, also, to water the sows with their feed, and when 

 the weather is extremely cold heating the water and feed- 

 ing the slop warm is beneficial. However, more and 

 more hog raisers are being converted to the dry-feeding 

 method. That the sows will do equally well and that 

 the system requires less work and bother than slop feed- 

 ing, is the verdict of those who have tried both methods. 



Cooking is a detriment rather than a benefit with the 

 usual hog-feeds. The effect of grinding and soaking is 

 slight and of doubtful value in practice, except with 

 small hard grains like rye, wheat, kafir, and very dry 

 corn. With pregnant sows whose rations are limited 

 to no more than one-half the amount they are capable 

 of eating, special methods of preparation for the pur- 

 pose of insuring greater palatability are not justified. 



The self-feeder method of feeding pregnant sows and 

 gilts during the winter would appear to be safe when 

 handled under favorable conditions by a careful feeder. 

 With good quality of alfalfa or clover hay cut fine or 

 ground and mixed with ground corn and the proportion 

 of hay so regulated that the consumption of corn will 

 not exceed the amount necessary to maintain the proper 

 condition and weight, good results may be secured. How- 

 ever, great care must be exercised that the consumption 

 of corn is not excessive. In the hands of a careless feeder, 

 the indiscriminate use of the self-feeder would prove 

 disastrous. Under general conditions it is doubtful 

 whether this method of feeding will ever prove generally 

 successful for feeding sows in pig. 



