300 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



witli constitutions so warped and organic weaKness so pronounced that 

 no amount of sanitation would ever malte a vigorous, or what we might 

 call a healthy animal. These in turn are called upon to reproduce, 

 with the result that their constitutional defects are transmitted indef- 

 initely and their power of resistance is so slight they are an easy prey 

 to about all the ailments the hog is heir to and are handicapped from life. 

 To have health on the hog farm the first essential is healthy stock 

 to produce them. Therefore in their selection we should keep™Uiis 

 point in view and use those with the fewest weak points possible and 

 that are well matured. Any deviation from this should be the excep- 

 tion and not the rule. 



With the above class of breeding stock as a foundation we should 

 get strong, healthy pigs, and will if the proper food and care is given 

 from mating to farrowing time. 



We are aware the future usefulness and health depends largely on 

 this period, but as we are to have papers bearing directly on this 

 phase of the business as well as the food problem, we will pass it by; 

 besides If we were to enter in and wade through the details connected 

 therewith we would likely not reach the farm before the next June 

 meeting, so will take it for granted the pig is born physically 

 strong. 



The tirst thing he needs is clean, well disinfected quarters. If he 

 is born and compelled to pass the first few hours of his life in a foul 

 pen, no matter how strong he may be, he is quite liable to take up 

 poisons through the navel and if it does not cause his death before he 

 is a week old will prove a serious set back for all time. Therefore, 

 keep the quarters clean of filth, take it to the fields where it becomes 

 food for the crops instead of poison to the hogs, and use disinfec- 

 tants freely, not only in the farrowing pen but in all the pens, yards, 

 feeding places or anywhere it seems necessary. It is not much work 

 and the cash outlay is next to nothing. There are quite a list of com- 

 mercials on the market, some of which we know are good and prob- 

 ably all of them, but here are three, while they are not as aristocratic, 

 will do the work and do it well: Sunbeams, crude carbolic acid and 

 air slacked lime, and we can see* no reason why they are not used 

 more extensively unless it is because they are so cheap. 



As to the general health conditions, we cannot do better than quote 

 the words of an eminent French physician on his death bed: "I go 

 but leave behind me three great physicians; pure air, pure food and 

 pure water." We can have all of these and as a rule in abundance. 

 Pure air by giving the buildings good ventilation and keeping them 

 and their surroundings clean and using disinfectants to destroy any 

 foul odor that may remain. As to pure food, our grains and forage 

 plants as they are delivered to us from the hand of the Creator must 

 be well up to the standard of purity if we can preserve them in this 

 condition and not allow them to become musty or sour and feed them 

 in a clean place, we have pretty, much solved the pure food problem. 

 Pure water, by using nothing but well or spring water that we know, 

 or have good reason to believe, is pure. And in using hog waterers 



