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Show HOLD ON TO GOOD BREEDERS Pigs From Large-Bodied, Old Sowi Number More and Often Double In Size When Farrowed. (By J. W. INGHAM.) Sows should be retained for a cumber cum-ber of years until their places can be. filled with their equals. It is well known that the progeny from mature parents are superior to those descended from young progeni- , tors not fully developed. Boars and sows for breeding should be kept in a good thrifty condition but not fat. The writer has always been trou- ' bled to keep his breeding sows from becoming too fat and consequently fn.rrowing a small number of scrawny pigs. . I once took a large sow to fatten for one-half the pork. I did not know she was with pig and fed her all the corn meal and wheat middlings she would eat. Imagine my astonishment and vexation vexa-tion when she had three little dwarfed pigs not only smaller than pigs. usually usual-ly are when first farrowed, but emaciated. ema-ciated. Sows for breeding should not be allowed al-lowed to run with the fattening hogs fed on corn but kept in a pasture by themselves and given a plentiful supply sup-ply of slop made of equal parts of wheat shorts, corn meal and wheat bran. Most young sows will breed when three months old if allowed to run with a boar, but eight or twelve months Is as young as is judicious tq breed them. The pigs from large-bodied, old sows will be more in number and frequently double the size of pigs from young sows when farrowed, and this with tha same feed and care and will frequently frequent-ly weigh 50 per cent more at a year old. Not only this, but It stunts or dwarfs the growth of such young things permanently and they never attain at-tain good size. |