BREEDS OF SWINE 485 



part, with some alfalfa meal or hay. The cost of this method is 2 to 

 4 cents per sow daily. If sows have been summered on alfalfa, they 

 will eat a larger amount of alfalfa hay if it is kept clean in a rack. 

 (Mo. Cir. 28.) 



Feed for Sow Before Farrowing. It will be shown later on that 

 pastures are the basis for the profitable handling of hogs. The pigs 

 should be gotten up to w r eaning time as cheaply as possible, and 

 the cheapest way to do this is to have a pasture for the sows to run 

 upon every month in the year. It is very little trouble to have pas- 

 tures practically the year round in the South. Of course the sow 

 should be provided with some grain in addition to the pasture, but 

 the pastures will save a great amount of grain. It must be remem- 

 bered that the sow must be nourished in such a way that the pigs will 

 come into the world strong and healthy. Corn alone will not keep 

 the sow in a good healthy condition, neither will it develop the pigs 

 in the mother's body. But corn along with good leguminous pasture 

 will provide her with a good ration. When pastures are not avail- 

 able such feeds as skim milk and bran should be used along with the 

 corn. Not more than one-half of her ration should ever be made up 

 of corn ; the other half should be made up of a feed that will furnish 

 plenty of ash and protein to build up the litter of pigs in the body. 

 Leguminous pastures are the cheapest feeds that can be found to go 

 along with the corn. With a good leguminous pasture the sow will be 

 maintained in good flesh when she is fed a ration of corn equivalent 

 to 1 per cent of her live weight. For a 200-pound sow this would 

 be 2 pounds of corn daily. When no pasture is provided it requires 

 from 6 to 7 pounds of grain to maintain a 200-pound sow in proper 

 condition. 



Some farmers make use of a leguminous hay for the sows when 

 the pastures become short. Alfalfa, cowpea, and soy-bean hay are all 

 good for this purpose. They save a great amount of grain. When 

 the farm is supplied with a cutter it will pay to cut the hay into 

 small parts, which should be mixed with the corn and fed as a thick 

 slop. But it will not pay to go to any extra expense to get ready to 

 cut this hay. Some feeders throw the uncut hay on the ground, 

 but this causes considerable waste, especially in rainy weather. In 

 the South, where hay is high in price, it will pay to provide a small 

 rack so that the animals can pull the hay from below without getting 

 it under their feet. 



If neither pastures nor hay are available, the feeder should use 

 corn along with wheat shorts, oran, tankage, skim milk, etc. Corn 

 should never be used alone. Corn and skim milk should be fed in 

 the proportion of one part of corn to three parts of skim milk. Under 

 average conditions the dry sow should be fed about one part of 

 shorts or bran to three parts of corn, or one part of tankage to nine 

 parts of corn. It would pay some farmers to use cowpeas and soy 

 beans along with the corn in the proportion of one part of the peas 

 to about six parts of corn. (F. B. 411.) 



During pregnancy two facts must be borne in mind. The first 

 is that the sow is doing double duty. Not only is she keeping up her 



