Care and Feeding of Sow and Litter 



77 



that the future brood sows shall be selected from the best 

 litters and prolific strains. The scheme universally 

 employed for this identification is some system of ear- 

 notches made with a special ear-marker or an ordinary 

 harness-punch. There is a great variety in these systems, 

 resulting from the individual ideas of breeders and the 

 size of the herds. The following system is commonly 

 used when the number of litters to be marked is not large : 



A PLAN OF EAR-NOTCHING FOR IDENTIFYING LITTERS 



All the pigs in the litter are given the same mark. The 

 first litter farrowed, according to the above plan, would 

 be given the ear-notch number 1, one notch in the outer rim 

 of the right ear, the second would be litter number 2, the 



