492 MANUAL OF FARM ANIMALS 



providing much nutrition for her offspring ; and she should be 

 prolific in farrowing healthy, quick-growing pigs. She should 

 have six or more functional teats on either side. When inspect- 

 ing the teats, one should see that there are no blind teats either 

 in the front or in the rear. 



Productive period. — On the average farm, sow pigs are bred 

 too young. Well-kept sows will often breed as young as three 

 months of age. They should not, however, under any con- 

 sideration, be bred under six months, eight months being as 

 young as it is proper to breed them. Sows bred too young 

 will remain not only underdeveloped, but small litters of weak 

 pigs will result. There is a rather widespread and growing 

 practice of breeding sows at six to eight months of age, rais- 

 ing one litter of pigs and then fattening the sows for market. 

 This is not good practice, for once a good brood sow is found 

 she should be kept as long as she continues to breed true and do 

 well. Some sows will remain productive until five or six years 

 ■ of age, while others will become clumsy or vicious before that 

 time. 



Season to breed. — Throughout the United States the main 

 crop of pigs should come in the warm days of March to May, 

 and the second crop in September to November. Since the 

 period of gestation in sows is approximately 112 days, this 

 means that they should be mated in December, January, and 

 February for the first crop and in June, July, and August for 

 the second crop. As a general rule in the northern states, a 

 sow should not be bred so as to farrow her pigs in the spring 

 before March, nor later in the fall than October. Both early 

 spring litters and those of early fall will pay the best on the 

 average, as the care of the pigs in the mild season is not so 

 difficult, and such pigs are likely to make larger and more 

 economic gain than litters farrowed in the hot days of summer 

 or the cold days of winter. 



Method of mating. — As a rule sows come around every three 



