200 SWINE 



With the increase in the capacity of the young sow she 

 will be enabled after this to eat larger quantities of feed 

 and with a reduction of the factor of waste, she will be 

 in a position, after weaning the first litter, which was 

 farrowed at the time she was one year old, to make con- 

 siderable growth and complete the development of her 

 carcass to a maximum degree. This sow then should not 

 have her second litter of pigs until she has come to ma- 

 turity at two years of age. 



The argument against this practice is that by breeding 

 a gilt at so young an age she may be checked in growth 

 to such an extent that she will never reach the size that 

 she otherwise would. This, however, is not considered by 

 the writer sufficient to overbalance the points already 

 mentioned. 



The other practice that is in general vogue is to con- 

 tinue to develop the young sow up to the time she is 

 about fourteen months old and then breed her to farrow 

 the first litter at one and one-half years of age, and the 

 second litter at two years of age, the time at which she 

 will have reached maturity. This has the advantage of 

 not having the growth of the sow checked as early as 

 would be the case in suckling a litter between the ages of 

 12 and 14 months. There also are disadvantages that 

 may be argued against this practice. 



By feeding continuously for such a long period of time, 

 the factor of waste may become so high that the pig is 

 not an economical producer of pork and hence will not 

 make sufficient gains in live weight. The capacity of 

 such an animal may also become comparatively much 

 smaller, which would not allow such a pig to eat sufficient 

 for maximum growth. Furthermore, if such a young sow 

 is not fed very carefully, her reproductive organs may be 



