Management and Feeding in Winter 41 



can be used. The answers to these questions should 

 also suggest economical and satisfactory methods of 

 supplementing these cereals with home-grown or pur- 

 chased feeds. 



In the present state of our knowledge of hog-feeding 

 problems, no fact is more clearly established than that 

 com alone for pregnant sows is not a good feed. This 

 is especially true during the latter part of the gesta- 

 tion period and for immature sows and gilts. The com- 

 bined experience of practical feeders and the results of a 

 few carefully planned studies at the experiment stations 

 supply strong evidence on this point. The train of evils 

 for which exclusive com feeding is, in large part, held 

 responsible is the following: a tendency for the pigs at 

 birth to be weak and under-developed ; a larger propor- 

 tion of dead pigs; a feverish irritable condition of the 

 sow at farrowing time ; more frequent trouble in giving 

 birth to their pigs ; greater tendency of the sows to develop 

 the pig-eating habit ; inability to secrete a normal supply 

 of milk for their pigs after birth, all of which means a 

 smaller number of pigs raised. 



A sow cannot grow a strong thrifty litter of pigs on a 

 diet of straight com. It does not possess enough of the 

 materials which make blood, bone, and muscle. A 

 pregnant sow so fed is certain to approach the farrowing 

 season in an impoverished state of health, low in vitality, 

 and in poor condition to bear the strain of pigging or the 

 later demands of milk production. This, with the weak 

 under-developed pigs, is the fundamental reason for the 

 disastrous results just enumerated. 



The conclusions of practical experience regarding the 

 effects of exclusive corn-feeding to bred sows are supported 

 by recent experimental feeding trials. The results of 



