BREEDING SWINE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 916, 9 February 1881, Page 2

BREEDING SWINE.

A brood sow is usually at her best, as a producer, in the number and quality of pigs as well as in the secretion of milk, when she is from two to three years old. The number of pigs dropped at a litter will usually increase with each successive litter up to the third or fourth, provided the sow is put to breeding so as to drop her first litter when she is about a year old, as is the custom with most breeders of swine. -- After the sow reaches four years of age, her powers of gestation usually grow weaker, and she is much less liable to save the pigs that may be dropped, Like all other general rules, there are exceptions to this, but under ordinary circumstances we would not recommend the keeping of brood sows by farmers who are raising hogs for the general market after they reach four years of The professional breeder of pure bred stock may often find it to his interest to keep a favorite sow, and give her especial attention so long as she will breed at all, because the exceptional value or reputation of her produce will justify him in keeping her for returns in value, which with ordinary stock would not repay the cost of food • but such cases rarely occur with the general farmer who "breeds and feeds pigs to make pork.