A Useful Hint.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 28 March 1891, Page 2

A Useful Hint.

Swine breeders often sustain, con" : siderable loss through' the sows eating their young. There Is nothing more annoying to the owner than a mishap of this kind. A correspondent writes to the Press auking it' there is any remedy for tt -bow that has acquired this 'bad Habiti Mr Saunders SperiCer the best Etl' glish authority j; says ikfs. ~ && . £& years he has adopted t^et-i^pnjlof nipping off the iricisdrs^t^l^My farrowed pigs alid Has l^l|l?^fefitted by so doing. His sylfpftjrtof performing this act of : de^|ilp is quite simple. Take the sucker urldev the left arm and with the thmiibtiind finger open its mouth and/ br^ak rl)ff the sharp teeth with a small pair J of. pincers. Mr Spencer explains that many of those cases of sows kilUflg and eating their young are eairsfedjby the pain suffered by the sows owing to the pigs biting the tender udder of the sow with their little' sharp teeth when fighting for the teat. This is particularly observable when the sow carries her young beyond the usual 112 days ; the teeth then become abnormally long and. vsharp, and the udder of the sow more extended and tender ; the young pigs are also generally moisjvigoious. and I the battle for each teat more determined. In the struggle the teftt is tightly compressed and in some eases pierced, when' the sow jumps up in anger, scatters the youngsters far and wide, when either from being trodden or from squeeze in the sow's jaws one or more of the pigs comes to an untimely end. The j taste or the smell of the blood then I has such an effect on the sow in herj then excitable condition that she proI ceeds to devour the dead pig ; and | this bad habit — like most others— I oncf. acquired is not easily cast off.