Age, Time and Season for Beeedinq. 43 



It is not necessary to do as we have done once or 

 twice, to keep a sow almost up to the limit of the average 

 usefulness of production, or you might get caught as we 

 did, by having quite a number of sows, that had been valu- 

 able breeders, but by holding too many years, all quit breed- 

 ing at once. It is very hard when one has a sow that pro- 

 duces very high-class animals to quit using her until he is 

 obliged to. 



We bred a sow once in her 13th year and she produced 

 one pig ; of course she had been a valuable sow or we would 

 not have retained her in the herd until that age. When she 

 farrowed her litter of only one pig we concluded it was 

 time to stop, so we fattened her and sold her to the local 

 butcher. He remarked as he looked her over that she was 

 no spring chicken, and some weeks after when I asked him 

 how the old sow turned out, he said all right in every way. 



The season in which it is be.st fol" sows to be bred, 

 depends entirely upon the part of the country in which 

 you are located. Breeders and farmers residing in the 

 southern states where cold weather is not a factor, may 

 breed at any time of the year, and tMs is a great advantage 

 over those of us who live in the northern or eastern states. 

 In the cold weather states, it is best not to have pigs far- 

 rowed later in the fall than September, and by no means 

 later than the latter part of October, for the reason that 

 these pigs will be farrowed too late to get sufficient growth 

 to be weaned and fed by themselves before the weather be- 

 comes too cold for best results in development, unless one 

 is especially fitted with conveniences, such as warm sleeping 

 houses, etc., with plenty of warm feed to continue their 

 development wjthout check. 



Nothing looks so bad as a little pig in the winter time 

 doubled up with cold and its hair pointing to its ears, but 

 where the pigs can be properly taken care of and continue 

 to grow and look smooth and thrifty, then it is a different 

 matter and they are fully as valuable as the pigs farrowed 

 in the spring, because they come to the proper breeding 

 age the fall following their birth, and there is nothing more 

 desirable or that sells better than fall litters that can be 

 bred a year from birth. 



