LIVE STOCK AND DAIRY 101 



Farrowing Pens. 



For farrowing pens, would it do to build a house about 20x72 

 feet, with good floors and roof, divided into pens about 6x8 with a 

 four-foot aisle down the middle? This zvould accommodate 24 sows. 

 Even this for 150 sows would be expensive, but as they would not all 

 farrow at the same time it probably would not be necessary to have 

 more than four houses. The sows would not have to be shut up 

 like this for more than six to eight weeks, when they could be turned 

 out on the alfalfa. 



Prof. J. I. Thompson says the plan you suggest is quite a common 

 one, though the pens should be 7x8, and for large sows 8x10, rather than 

 6x8. The sows would not necessarily be kept in these pens after the pigs 

 are two weeks old. After that they could 'be allowed to run in pasture 

 provided not too many are put together. 



Fall or Spring Pigs? 



Would boars from a spring litter be any better for sires than 

 boars from fall litters, and if so, why? 



Chas. Goodman, of Williams, says that other things being equal, 

 the date of farrowing would not affect the usefulness of the pig. 

 If he is properly bred and properly developed that is about all that would 

 be required to produce results. He would as soon have a boar 

 farrowed on the first day of April as on Christmas if the breeding 

 was all right but if the breeding was bad he would not take the pig 

 at any price. 



Start With Scrubs, or Pure-breds? 



// a man has $100 to invest in hogs and needs a quick income, 

 should he invest in pure-breds or in scrubs and then work into pure-breds? 



Your $100 will buy a lot of common pigs and you will keep them 

 most any way, and if they are not too scrubby they will make you 

 some money. The $100 will more than buy two choice pure-bred 

 sows already bred to a boar whose ancestry guarantees the largest 

 percentage of pigs which will have the most desirable market con- 

 formation, the greatest uniformity, the best killing percentage, the 

 quickest maturity, the most economical use of food, and will in turn 

 produce other pigs of the same kind. In the fall of 1913 W. H. Ginn 

 & Son of Corcoran bought two pure-bred Duroc sows three years old 

 already bred. They cost $100. They raised nine sows and seven 

 boars. In the fall of 1914, three of the sow pigs were bred and sold 

 for $105. Last spring those three gilts had 25 pigs and raised 

 every one. Six of the first sow pigs were kept as the foundation for 

 his own pure-bred herd and no more females have been 'bought. Last 

 September, when seen at his ranch, he had 120 head of pure-breds 

 which delight the heart of any hog man, to say nothing of the boar 

 pigs he has sold in the meantime. The sows have averaged eight 

 pigs per litter and raised 85 per cent, though the hog sheds are built 

 simply of scraps of lumber that would have been wasted, and the 



AGRICULTURAL LIBRARY 



UNIVLRSITY OF CALIFORNIA 



CITRUS RESEARCH CENTER AND 

 AGRJCULV (PERCENT STATION 



