Live
"he farH
Garden
VOL. LXII
INDIANAPOLIS, SEPTEMBER 21, 1007.
NO. 38
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THE   BROOD  SOW.
Cull, and Keep Culling.
1st Premium.—I have a very definite
idea just how I should select a lot of
young sows, for breeding, and how I
should handle and feed, and what I should
feed, that it is more difficult to tell than to
tun over in your own mind. I think the
editor might have given us something easier than the future son and how to produce
Her, for it is one of the most difficult
questions iu the whole category of questions in swine husbandry.
Under the idea that "like begets like" it
is unnecessary to argue the importance of
a good selection. It is self evident. All
that 1 shall say will have reference to the
farm hog tht is to be reared, fed and marketed at nine months old, weighing three
hundred pounds gross, aud if you cannot
do that you have not got the proper sow
or you are not feeding right. In the
choice of a young sow, I should like to
have the genealogy back a few generations
ou both aides. I should not hoose one of
those pretty little pigs that looks as
though it had been pressed into its hide
and could not swallow another grain of
com. Take the score card of the breed
you choose from and follow that in your
choice for the general shake up of your
sow. The abdomeninal regions should
be rather large, and there should be a
'mellow appearance in the make-up. The
disposition should be looked after, but you
make that by your treatment to a great
extent. The sow is the laboratory for the
production of the pig crop. The food
consumed enters into the characteristics of
the young sow, so you do not want to
feed so much for fat as for bone and muscle. In winter feed clover hay, with
brn, shorts, vegetables, milk, slops, etc.,
with corn eough to round them up. In
summer keep them iu pasture. Clover is
the hog's salvation, both for health and
profit. Give young sows a wide range,
even in winter, with access to dry, warm
quarters in winter and cool in summer.
Give salt and water at will. Increase and
diminish their feed so as to keep them in
a strong, growing condition, without getting them over-fat or poor. Treat them
to large doses of kindness, so that they
may be easily handled at all times.
Do not breed your young sows at too
early an age. They should be one year
old when their first litter comes. Let the
sows get well developed before breeding.
They can then take better care of their
pigs. I like early spring pigs, March for
instance, but the young sow's first litter
in the latter part of April is better.
My plan has been like this: If I needed
five sows I would breed say ten, and then
cull out suoh as did not make a favorable
showing and re-breed the ones that made
the best showing in number of pigs and
quality; and then cull again and keep culling. But when yon get a good breeder
holds on to her until she fails. We raised
hold on to her until she fails We raised
one sow and held her for ten years. During the time she raised two litters each
year, of not less than eight or even ten
at each litter, that lived and came to maturity. She was a Poland China. What
would such a sow be worth?
I. N. C.
Do Not Pen Tbem up.
2d Premium.—I will give a brief outline
of my  system  of hog raising whieh  has
proved very satisfactory to me. The hog
is one of the best as well as the quickest
money makers the farmer has, but hogs
like any other stock that pays out well
must have care and attention, and not be
expected to care for themselves on the
''root hog or die" principle. I do not quite
agree at all times with some farmers in
regard to keeping sows until they are quite
old, but prefer to raise young sows to
take the place of the old ones. Then
the older ones can be fattened before they
are almost worthless. As a uie the old
sows if well kept get too big and fat, and
ly while growing. If well cared for from
the time they first begin to eat until about
5 months old they will weigh 175 lbs. and-
better; but if allowed to hunt for themselves they will do well to weigh 50 lbs.
and will have to be kept until the next
spring or longer before breeding. Do not
confine pigs in a pen. more especially if for
breeding purposes, for with a lack of exercise they will get fat and ill-shaped, with
a lack of bone and muscle. Give them
plenty of exercise, and plenty to eat and
drink, and note how soon the pig will be a
big hog. Subscriber.
One of the Attractions at the Indiana State Fair.
are more apt to lie on pigs. Then too an
eld sow is quite often troublesome in going where she pleases.
In the autumn of 1906 I selected two
young sows and bred them when they
were 8 months old. They were a cross
between a full blood Poland China sow
and a full blood Berkshire boar, making a
good cross, I think, if we are not raising pure bred stock for breeding purposes.
I bred those young sows to a full blood
Duroc boar. The following spring one
young sow farrowed a litter of 8 pigs,
the other one 7 pigs. The old sow farrowed 8. Only lost one pig in the three
litters. The young sows' pigs, however,
are the best piss, being all of a uniform
size. I feed and care for my young
sows just the same as my other pigs that
are intended for market, having a clover
pasture for them, and teaching them to
eat ground feed from a feeder just as soon
as thej will eat and sweet milk from a
trough which is kept clean. A very good
feed for growing pigs is one-third oats and
two-thirds corn, but oats being pretty expensive,; as well as scarce I use crushed
corn and cob. This works nice in a feeder
if it is crushed fine. The clover and milk
will help supply the bone and muscle in
place of the oats. I also give plenty of
salt, ashes, stone, coal and sulphur. My
young hogs are not ringed and do not root.
I do not pen my sows that I intend for
breeding purposes, either in the woods or
in a small lot. Neither do I just half
feed them for fear they will get too fat,
but let them eat all they want as long as
they have plenty of exercise in a pasture
field.    They will not get too fat, especial-
Peed for Bone and Muscle.
3d Premium. Since the brood sow
should be thrifty, well developed
and of strong constitution, it is
necessary that they be properly cared
for and handled in such a way as to develop their full possibilities. In our estimation, one of the worst fates that can befall
the pig is to be shut up in a dry pen and
fed corn. No matter how much may be
fed, this ration does not seem to meet the
requirements, and we have seen pigs
handled in this way that had every appearance of being stunted. We think
much the better plan is to give them
plenty of range. But in planning for the
brood sows, their ancestors should be considered and pigs should be selected only
from those that are hardy and prolific.
With this foundation, then with the proper
care, good brood sows may be developed.
Without doubt it will be agreed that the
pigs should be kept growing from the
start. To accomplish this, the sows should
be well cared for during the suckling
period, and as soon as the pigs are old
enough to eat they should be provided a
place to eat by themselves where they will
not be crowded ont by the older ones.
Oats and corn ground together, and middlings, or rye and middlings mixed in.
If given a little of this ration and permitted the run of a clover field we know of
no other conditions better suited to promote growth and hardiness in the pigs. To
give them the advantages of the clover
and stubble fields it is best to select the
brood sowa from the spring litters. It
has been our experience that the less grain
and especially corn, the pigs have, the bet
ter for them, if they can be kept in good,
thrifty conditon without it. It is not the
purpose to put on weight but to promote
growth, and this is better accomplished by
clover, cowpeas, or kindred erops, than by
corn which is inclined to put on too much
fat. We have found it a good plan to aow
a field of rye in August, to turn the pigs
on when the clover and stubble fields no
longer afford forage. Then they should
be given plenty of pure water. This is
a matter that must not be overlooked if
success is expected. If the pigs are kept
growing during the summer they will be
well developed by winter when a larger
proportion of grain will be required.
They should not be shut up at any time
unless the weather really demands it.
Good houses should be provided, but they
should be given the run of the lots as
much as possible. We think it better to
build individual houses. These can be
moved any place, and the sows can be
kept separate at farrowing time. As this
period approaches, they should be fed a little oil meal, shorts and tankage mixed into a thick slop. This puts them in good
condition for farrowing, and sows fed in
this way are not so likely to eat their pigs.
Ashes, salt and charcoal should be kept
where they have free access to them at all
times. Care should be taken not to
make the Sows too fat Feed them on
slops as much as possible, and avoid stuffing them with corn, which is heating.    J.
No. 603, Sept 28—Show the value of
paint. Tell how to paint buildings, implements, etc.
No. 604, Oct. 5.—Does it pay to raise
root crops for winter feed for live stock?
Give experience.
No. 605. Ocjt. 12.—Give directions for
making butter that will sell at the highest
price, and tell how to market it.
GETTING ALFALFA READY.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
The alfalfa belt is growing. In many
localities where this crop was not considered importarl a few years ago, there are
now as fine fields as one would care to look
upon. We are just beginning to recognize
the full value of the crop, and how it can
be utilized in saving grain crops.
Alfalfa seed is very high, and while we
would like to see a nice field of it on every
stock farm, yet we might as well face the
fact that in some sections and on some
soils it is difficult to get alfalfa started.
Unless it has been grown for four or five
years in your neighborhood, and on soils
like your own, better go slow. Mr. Bonze-
let of Wisconsin recommends sowing three
or four pounds of alfalfa seed with clover
and timothy. The combination makes
fine hay, and if the land will grow alfalfa at all the few pounds of seed will produce enough plants to inoculate the soil,
ond in the course of two or three years the
field may be plowed up and seeded to alfalfa alone. This plan has secured a
stand of alfalfa when all other methods
failed, and the preliminary sowing with
the other grasses kept, the ground in use.
On ground where red clover will likely suc-
seed use it in the combination. On
some of the lower land Alsike has been
used with splendid success with the alfalfa and timothy; in fact dairymen prefer the Alsike combination to the other,
and it makes fine hay, with less of the
stalks than are usually found in the oeiars-
er clovers. Another thing in seeding alfalfa, don't sow it too late. Here is
where much of the damage is done. Unless early seeding is done better wait until
spring. L. C. Brown.