Caee of the Brood Sows. 5& 



in the way of mineral matter that is so necessary in building 

 up the bone and frame of the unborn litter. 



Brood sows should have a dry warm place to sleep, and 

 but few in number — not over ten or twelve — should run 

 together or sleep in one compartment. This is to avoid 

 their crowding or piling up too closely. 



The future of the pig depends much, in fact more than is 

 usually realized, on what the dam receives in feed and care 

 before the birth of the litter. "A litter well born is half 

 raised," and there should be no immediate change in the 

 feeding formula for the sow having just farrowed a litter 

 of pigs, from what she has been h9,ving during the 

 period of gestation, only after farrowing the sow should 

 go at least twenty-four hours without feed, with what 

 water she will drink, which in cold weather should 

 be given her with the chill taken off ; then, a very light 

 portion of the same feed she has been having. If she 

 has been fed a dry feed, it would be well to use the same 

 proportion in the mixture, only feed it as a slop, with warm 

 water during the winter in a cold climate, and cold water 

 if in the southern States. 



This feed should be gradually increased as the litter is 

 able to take all the milk furnished by the mother. Usually 

 at the end of one week, if the litter is an average sized one, 

 the sow can be fed. all she will eat up clean. 



By the time the pigs are three weeks old they will eat a 

 little on the side from the trough with their mother, and 

 if it is desired to push them to the limit in growth, a small 

 feeding space can be arranged so they may feed from a very 

 low, shallow trough by themselves, unmolested by the 

 mother, giving them the same feed given the mother. 



During this period of the early life of the litter the sow 

 and litter should take plenty of exercise for the necessary 

 good of the pigs, for they must exercise considerably dur- 

 ing each day, or they will become fat around the heart and 

 die with what is known as "Thumps," which is nothing 

 more or less than fatty degeneration of the heart, which 

 they will certainly have unless they are exercised daily in 

 some way. 



As weaning time approaches, which should not be earlier 

 than ten to twelve weeks, in my opinion, the feed may be 

 lessened for the sow and more given the litter, so that the 



