5"4 FoKTY Years' Bxpekience of a Practical Hog Man. 



During nearly forty years of breeding, we have only had 

 to resort to pig forceps once or twice, and then generally 

 without good results. 



If the weather is cold when the young pigs are just far- 

 rowed, we have made it a practice to have close at hand a 

 barrel or box with either a hot brick or two or a stone heated 

 and laid in the box and covered thickly and deeply with chaff 

 or cut straw, and as fast as the youngsters appear we wipe 

 them off with a cloth and place them in this box, where it is 

 warm, covering the same with a blanket, and wait for the 

 next one's appearance, keeping this up until the entire lit- 

 ter is farrowed, if not continuing over too long a period. If 

 several hours' time is occupied in farrowing the litter, we 

 let those that have appeared nurse once or twice during the 

 time, placing them back in the box as soon as they have 

 nursed sufficiently, and when the whole litter is farrowed, 

 we place them all with the mother, and if everything goes 

 right and the mother is quiet, leave them there. If, however, 

 she is ugly and inclined to get up and turn around and act 

 badly, we place the pigs back in the box to keep them warm, 

 and wait a short time until she is again settled. But gener- 

 ally, after the sow permits the litter to nurse once without 

 undue restlessness, she will be quiet with them. 



You will notice an illustration of a farrowing box, which 

 we have used for many years, and consider it one of the 

 best appliances in the equipment of a farrowing house, for 

 while the sow can easily lie down on either her right or left 

 side, she cannot turn around or lie down on the pigs, as 

 they are protected by the sides of the farrowing box which 

 do not extend clear to the floor, but have a space of some 

 nine inches in which the youngsters can run out into the 

 outer part of the box at either side or end. "We found in 

 the last Spring farrowing of over two hundred pigs, that 

 only three were injured in the farrowing box. In a large 

 herd three or four of these boxes would be one of the best 

 investments that could be made. 



After the pigs are two or three days old, they, with the 

 sow, can be removed to an individual house or pen, without 

 much danger of their being overlaid by the sow, unless she 

 is deaf, which is sometimes the case, but such a sow should 

 be sold for pork and not kept in the breeding herd. 



