Feeding and Handling the Herd 21 



than two or three services in a single week during the 

 breeding season. As a rule and under average conditions, 

 it is unwise to use the pig before he is a year old. The 

 careful conservation of his breeding powers until he is 

 fairly well developed will insure larger size at maturity 

 and an extension of breeding vigor in later life. Experi- 

 ence has shown the practice of depending entirely on pigs 

 for sires to be disastrous. 



Early or late pigs. 



The question of the best time for the sows to farrow 

 must be determined for each farm according to its location, 

 the facilities which it affords in the way of quarters for 

 handling early pigs, and in accordance with the purposes 

 of the farmer and his plan of management. Through- 

 out the corn-belt, and farther north, February or March 

 farrowing necessitates warm barns or houses and special 

 attention to all the details of care and handling. When 

 the pigs are not finished for market until the follow- 

 ing spring or summer, as is still the practice on some 

 farms, the very early pigs have no advantage over the 

 late ones. 



The advantages urged for early pigs are : first, that 

 they have the size which enables them to make a larger 

 and more satisfactory use of forage crops during the 

 summer, — they can make a larger proportion of their 

 growth from green feeds and hence reduce the amount 

 of grain required in their growth, while the expensive 

 finishing period is shortened ; the second advantage, 

 and perhaps the most important one, is that the early 

 pigs find the early market, and this is ordinarily the best 

 market. As a rule, average pigs throughout the corn- 

 belt are marketed in December or January, and, as a rule. 



