3 38 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



wlun he didn't Wcint it out, so lie plugged it np and dipped the 

 water out. 



L. C. Reese, Prescott, Iowa, said : 



I don't just agree with the first brother in regard to the larger hog 

 houses. Up to five years ago I had a hog liouse that cost me nearly 

 $1,000. Then I had the misfortune to lose it by fire. I never raised as 

 good pigs in that hog house as I have raised since. I have now twenty- 

 six individual houses. When it comes farrowing time I hitch an old 

 horse to a sled and I can feed them and care for them as quickly and 

 easily as if they were all in a large hog house. And when they farrow 

 you won't have the trouble with one sow disturbing all the rest. To 

 build a hog house now about sixteen by thirty-two will cost you about 

 $375 or $400 the cheapest way you can. That will accommodate about 

 twelve sows which gives them a pen six by six with a four-foot alley 

 way. You can build individual farrowing pens at about $12 apiece, and 

 you can put them wherever you want them. You can tell just what each 

 sow is doing and the pigs won't rob other pigs. Now as to tenant farming 

 again. My mother now has twenty-one tenants and if you will go with 

 me and follow around just three months out of the year and see the 

 expense put on some of these tenant farms you will say the landloi'd is 

 not all to blame. As a rule if the landlord has a good tenant he will 

 try to keep that tenant. Another thing in favor of individual farrowing 

 pens is that it gives them sixteen feet of dirt floor at all times and right 

 here is one thing that I might add. If you are bothered with thumps 

 if you will get some earth and get it good and dry and give it to your 

 little pigs you won't lose them. 



On this topic R. J. Ilavding said : 



I have a large hog house. When I built it I supposed that was the 

 right thing to do. I didn't have the misfortune of being burned out 

 and it comes in pretty handy yet, but it wasn't very long before I found 

 out that it was just as Mr. Reese says — one sow would jump around and 

 up would come every sow, thinking something was wrong with her pigs. 

 I don't use anything else now but individual hog houses. 



IF. F. Iloflt'nian, Washta, Iowa, eomniented as follows: 



You ought to keep them separate and they will do much better. We 

 have both large and small hog houses and we have all our pigs farrow 

 in the main hog house. I will admit that if you keep so many together 

 they won't do so well, but we don't aim to keep too many together. As 

 far as I am concerned I will take the large hog house as :i matter of 

 convenience. We have water, stoves and a cement floor and it is not 

 much to take care of them and I have not had a pig with thumps for 

 ten years or one with scours. Our hog house is well ventilated and it 

 is not damp. We have some individual hog pens and use them some- 

 times, but it always seems to me you can get better ventilation in the 

 large house. 



