232 FEEDING AND MANAGEMENT 



altogether a matter of prevention. If a sow is taken directly 

 from a pasture field, shut up in a pen, and fed upon an 

 exclusive meal ration, trouble is almost sure to occur. Radical 

 changes in feeding are to be avoided, and the ration should be 

 kept practically the same after taking the sow into the pen as 

 it was before. If anything, the feed should be made rather 

 more sloppy, and green feed or roots should be supplied the 

 same as they were before the sow was taken in. A small amount 

 of linseed meal (oil meal) or ground flaxseed added to the 

 ration is also helpful in preventing constipation. The wisdom 

 of feeding meal to sows while on pasture for a time before 

 they farrow can be readily appreciated, as it prevents a violent 

 change in their ration. The sow should also be given a chance 

 and encouraged to take exercise. 



Farrowing. The farrowing pen should be dry, well ven- 

 tilated, and free from draughts. It is a good plan to provide 

 the pen with a guard rail made of two by eight inch planks 

 fastened with their edges against the sides of the pen a little 

 above the bed. These prevent the sow from lying against the 

 partition, and lessen the danger of injury to the little pigs, 

 which often find the space under the guard a very convenient 

 refuge. (Fig. 52.) 



There is a difference of opinion as to the amount of bedding 

 which should be used, some maintaining that the sow should 

 be liberally supplied with bedding, and others that the bedding 

 should be limited. The writer's experience is that active sows in 

 comparatively light condition can generally be trusted with a 

 liberal amount of bedding, but sows which are in high con- 

 dition, or which are at all clumsy, had better be given only a 

 moderate amount of cut straw. 



Sows should not be allowed to farrow in a large piggery 

 where many other pigs are kept, unless it is warm weather and 

 windows and doors can be left open. The air of a piggery 



