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 sinall 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 
