At FARROWING TIME, 31 



The sow about to farrow will eagerly eat carbonaceous 

 food, like potatoes, turnips, apples, cabbage, roots, 

 etc. Such food, in connection with milk, wheat bran, 

 linseed meal or other nitrogenous food, is good for 

 her. Clean sods, charcoal, etc., seem to have the 

 power to aid digestion, and the penned-up sow should 

 have such things. Never feed an exclusively corn or 

 1 corn-meal diet. 



Laxative food, like linseed meal, serves the 

 double purpose of keeping the bowels open and also 

 of supplying needed nitrogen or protein. 



The brood hog should not be fat, but neither 

 should she be thin in flesh, but must be in good con- 

 dition and well nourished. 



A few hours before farrowing the milk always 

 comes into the teats. Internal nourishment of the off- 

 spring has been completed, and nature now makes pro- 

 vision for the new order of things. Overfeeding, or 

 feeding with heating or constipating foods, is likely to 

 make trouble, and hence it is common practice to feed 

 lightly at this time. Sow's milk is much richer in fat 

 than cow's milk. 



Some breeders give no food for twenty-four hours 

 after farrowing, but it will do no harm to furnish the 

 sow with some bran or middlings in warm water if she 

 seems hungry or thirsty. For three days the food 

 ration should be light. After that she should have 

 milk, bran slop and other nutritious foods for a week or 

 two, and then some corn and other things for variety. 



Quietness and rest are more essential than food 

 immediately after farrowing, and the sow should 

 remain undisturbed as much as possible. 



