A PLACE FOR THE PIG ON THE FARM. 75 



clover hay is fed while it is dry almost anywhere. The wheat 

 bran is fed largely in troughs, and the oats are scattered on the 

 feed floor. We scatter them very thinly so that the sow will 

 pick them up one by one. In that way she grinds them very 

 thoroughly, as a hog when eating will keep her grinders working 

 whether she finds much to eat or not, and she will get exercise, 

 as she will walk over that floor backward and forward for 

 twenty, forty or fifty times in getting the ration of oats. Of 

 course we keep water before them all the time. 



The brood sow needs exercise. A hog is a sluggish animal 

 and if you have, as you should have, very comfortable sleeping 

 quarters, the tendency is when she has eaten to go and lie down. 

 She needs some place for exercise, and so we give her the barn- 

 yard, and she will work around for hours while if it were not 

 for that she would be lying down. I want my feed floor out of 

 doors, because I can keep it sweeter and cleaner there than any- 

 where else. I have never been successful in keeping a feed floor 

 clean under cover. If I clean it half a dozen times a day it is 

 more or less filthy. We are told by scientists that sunlight is 

 the best disinfectant known ; that two seconds of sunlight will 

 kill any hog cholera germ in existence. I want my feed floor 

 out in God's broad sunlight, where it can be scalded out for me 

 when the sun shines and where every rain can fall on it and wash 

 it out. I would surround it, however, by a high board fence. 

 The snow of course will fall into it, but in shovelling out the 

 •snow we take out a good deal of filth. A good housewife 

 .sprinkles snow on the carpet when she sweeps it, and the same 

 rule holds good when we clean our feeding floors. 



We find it necessary in the spring, when the sows farrow, to 

 "have a pen for each of them, and it was quite a question to find 

 what was the cheapest farrowing pen. After trying a great 

 many pens I made the one which I have used now for three years, 

 and I find it very successful, not only in being the cheapest but 

 the best pen I can build for my brood sows. The framework is 

 very simple, being made of poles, with a ridge pole, and is about 

 six by eight feet. We nail six-feet lumber on the sides, and 

 ■close up the back and the front with the exception of a door, and 

 we have a pen that looks very much like the gable of a house. 

 One reason why we like this pen is because it is made in such a 

 vvav that the mothers cannot lie on their litters if thev wish to. 



