THE SOW 229 
place. If kept well bedded, and banked about the bottom 
with strawy horse manure, they make comfortable sleeping 
quarters. The sows are forced to take exercise in walking 
backwards and forwards between the pen and the feeding 
place. 
It is better to keep not more than five or six sows in a pen 
of this kind, and care should be taken to provide plenty of 
trough room. The troughs should be placed on dry ground or 
on a platform, and it is preferable to have them in a place that 
is sheltered from the wind. 
Feeding and Management during Gestation——During the 
period of gestation the sow should be kept in good, strong 
condition, but not overloaded with fat. Extremes in condition 
are to be avoided. The very fat sow is apt to be clumsy with 
her pigs, and sometimes her pigs are few in number or lacking 
in vitality. On the other hand, the very thin sow will either 
not do justice to her pigs, or will become a mere wreck herself 
during the time she is nursing her litter, and the chances are 
that both these things will happen. A sow may be kept in 
fairly high condition and still produce satisfactory litters, 
provided she takes plenty of exercise. (Fig. 51.) 
Her Ration.—In districts where corn is plentiful, there is 
a temptation to feed sows almost exclusively upon corn. Such 
a method of feeding cannot give the best results, because corn 
does not. furnish enough bone- and muscle-forming constituents 
to properly develop the unborn pigs. It is also rather too 
fattening and heating to feed in large quantities to a sow at 
this stage. It is true that corn may be fed, but, as in the case 
of the boar, it must be fed with judgment. The ration recom- 
mended for the boar—namely, equal parts ground corn, ground 
oats, and wheat middlings—will answer very nicely for the 
sow. The proportion of corn should not be over one-third of 
