CHAPTER IV. 



AT FARROWING TIME. 



The wise breeder will give the sows proper food and sufficient 

 exercise and then trust nature at farrowing time. John Tucker. 



A sow that has had wise feeding 

 during the period of pregnancy will 

 seldom have difficulty in giving birth to 

 her offspring. 



A sow carrying pigs is engaged in a work which 

 demands a full supply of the tissue-making or nitro- 

 genous foods ; foods rich in protein. Besides main- 

 taining her own life she must secrete the material for 

 building up the bodies of perhaps half a score of little 

 pigs and then be ready to supply them with milk. 

 These pigs at birth will average two and one-half 

 pounds in weight, and it is easy to see that the func- 

 tion of motherhood is a severe one. 



Demanding nitrogenous food, such as clover, 

 wheat bran or middlings, linseed meal, or something 

 else rich in protein, it is not hard to understand that a 

 sow may suffer greatly if such foods are denied her, 

 nor is it surprising that when pregnant sows are fed 

 almost exclusively on corn or corn-meal (which con- 

 tains only one part of protein to nine or ten of carbo- 

 hydrates and fat) they should be so nearly crazy for 

 protein as to eat their own young when they are born. 

 Such sows are literally insane and irresponsible, the 



