There is a wide diversity of practice in teaching 

 the pigs to eat from the trough. Some careful breeders 

 feed the sow in a separate compartment, away from 

 the pigs, lest the little ones pick up scraps for which 

 their digestions are not yet ready. Others permit the 

 pigs to take their chances along with the mother. 

 Others provide a small separate trough, out of reach 

 of the sow, and feed the pigs oats, bran, soaked corn 

 and even wheat. The wheat should be cracked if thus 

 fed, and I should in no case tise the corn alone. The 

 muscle-making foods will make some fat, but the fat- 

 making foods 'will produce little muscle. Corn has, it 

 is true, some muscle-producing ability, but not much, 

 and what small pigs need is food that will make 

 muscle, bone and blood. The real demand for King 

 Corn will come at a later stage of the operation ; not 

 in pighood. 



All in-doors or cold weather farrowing demands 

 careful shelter and separate management for each sow, 

 so that crowding and injury may not ensue. Sous 

 due to pig in April are more likely to have good luck 

 with their young than sows farrowing in February or 

 March, unless good care and shelter be given to the 

 earlier litters. 



On the plan of two litters a year it is evident that 

 the two lots of pigs must be cared for differently, since 

 one lot comes in spring and the other in autumn. But 

 the summer freedom and exercise of the dam, in con- 

 nection with a diet of grass and clover, may be confi- 

 dently expected to produce more thrifty pigs in 

 September than were littered in March, and it is there- 

 fore largely a question of care and management 



