SWINE MANAGEMENT 161 



marking is by means of notches in the ears. A single 

 notch in the outer rim of the right ear indicates that the 

 pig belongs to the first litter born that season. The 

 second litter is marked by two notches in the outer rim 

 of the right ear. Litter No. 3 is marked by a single notch 

 in the outer rim of the left ear. A pig of the tenth litter 

 is marked by a single notch in the inner rim of the right 

 ear. A pig of the thirtieth litter has a single notch in 

 the inner rim of the left ear. A notch, therefore, has a 

 value of 1, 3, 10 or 30, according to its location in the 

 outer rim of the right or left ear or the inner rim of the 

 right or left ear. The number of the litter to which a pig 

 belongs is indicated by the sum of the values of all of the 

 notches present. A hundred litters in the same herd can 

 be marked by this system. It is useless to try to give 

 each pig an individual number, for all of the pigs in one 

 litter should have the same ancestry. 



Fall vs. spring pigs. — As has been pointed out in a 

 previous paragraph, spring pigs have an advantage over 

 fall pigs in that they come at a season of the year when 

 they will have an abundance of feeds to grow on during 

 the summer and an abundance to fatten on in the fall. 

 Fall pigs come at a time when the feeds for growing 

 come high and when the grazing feeds for fattening at 

 an early age are almost not to be had. The result is that 

 fall pigs must be kept longer than spring pigs before 

 marketing, and the cost is thereby increased that much. 

 A properly equipped breeder will arrange for nearly as 

 many pigs to be dropped in the fall as in the spring and 

 will arrange to get them off to market as early as 

 possible in the summer or early fall, when prices are 

 generally good. The advantages of spring pigs over fall 



