no Forty Years' Experience of a Practical Hog Max. 



SOW would gradually give less milk and have no trouble 

 when l.he pigs are taken entirely away. 



Some breeders have made it a practice to gradually wean 

 the litter by taking them away for a few hours and then 

 returning them to the mother and following this up for 

 a few days imtil they are taken away entirely. 



Others have practiced taking one or more of the most 

 thrifty ])igs in the litter away from the .mother first, then 

 after a few days a few others, and finally taking those re- 

 maining, ijelieving that pigs so weaned would leave the sow 

 in lietfyr condition and less danger of swelling and soreness 

 of the adder. 



t^Ye never have practiced this, however, during our forty 

 years of breeding pigs. By letting the litter suckle until 

 it is ten to twelve weeks old or a little over, the sow naturally 

 is inclined to wean them licrself and if she has been prop- 

 erly fed the last part of this period she will practically 

 gi\e no milk at the end of three months or thereabouts. 



When the litter is finally weaned the sow should be given 

 a good fresli pasture of some kind with a little grain and 

 she will need xevy little else during the next month or two 

 or until time to begin to bring her in condition for another 

 season 's breeding. 



We pastured something like forty brood sows that had 

 weaned their ])igs in May, by turning them directly into 

 a fresh white clover and blue grass pasture where there 

 was plenty of shade. The>- had no grain or slop for four 

 months, but wei-e given daily from a water fountain all the 

 fresh clean water they could drink. 



They did well on this grass and water diet, but in 1914 

 we will feed two or three ears of com daily to each sow, 

 besides the grass and water, as I believe for best results 

 they should ha^'e a little grain. The sows that were l)red 

 for fall litters ran in the pasture with the others and wero 

 removed into individual lots about a month before farrow- 

 ing where the>- were given a little corn and some slop with 

 plenty of grass. 



To have two litters a year, sows must wean their spring 

 litters by i\Iay 1st, so as to be bred for early fall farrow, 

 and the fall litters must be weaned in November or early 

 December so as to be bred for March and April farrow. 



