SWINE GEOBGE E. DAY. 71 



shade trees or is partially wooded, makes an excellent run 

 for sows. 



Winter management is more difficult than summer. The 

 greatest difficulty is to give the sows sufficient exercise, 

 without which good litters cannot be expected. In many 

 cases they can be given the run of the barnyard, where they 

 will take exercise, rooting among the manure, or working 

 among scattered straw or chaff, to find what little grain it 

 may contain. If a dry, well bedded sleeping place is pro- 

 vided, which is free from draughts, the conditions are almost 

 ideal for the best results. When it is impossible to use the 

 barnyard, a roomy shed with earth floor and a sleeping pen 

 arranged in one corner, can be made answer the purpose. By 

 littering the shed with cut straw or chaff, and sprinkling a 

 very little whole grain among the chaff every day, the attend- 

 ant can get the sows to take considerable exercise. Another 

 method is to make use of small portable pens set in outside 

 lots. These pens may be made 8 feet wide, i6 feet long, 

 7 feet high in front, and 2% feet high at the back, with 

 shanty roof. The pens may be made of a single thickness 

 of inch boards with battens over the cracks. In the front 

 is placed a window, and an opening near one corner large 

 enough for the sows to go in and out. No door is required 

 for the opening. These pens should be placed facing the 

 south, and about fifty yards from the feeding place. If 

 kept well bedded, and banked about the bottom on the out- 

 side with horse manure, they afford quite comfortable 

 sleeping quarters. The sows are forced to take exercise 

 in walking backwards and forwards between the pen and 

 the feeding place. A pen such as described, will accom- 

 modate nine or ten sows, though it is better, as a rule, not to 

 have more than five or six sows together. Care should 

 be taken to provide plenty of trough room ; and the troughs 

 should be located on high, dry ground, or a platform should 

 be made on which to place them. 



A record should be kept of the date of service of each 

 sow; so that the date of farrowing will be known in advance. 



