PENS FOR PIGS. 299 



cause of its convenience. However, in those parts where 

 diseases are prevalent the small, isolated pens are much 

 safer and hence more preferable. In the larger combina- 

 tion house you have all your pigs together and if the dis- 

 ease breaks out all are apt to be affected, while in the 

 colony system with small isolated pens, one or two pigs may 

 be attacked and be destroyed, say, with cholera, and all 

 the rest of the herd might be left unhurt. This plan neces- 

 sitates more labor, it is true, to care for the herd, but it is- 

 attended with much better results, especially in the corn 

 belt where swine plague and cholera destroy such large 

 numbers. The small pens are constructed quite cheaply 

 and may be built on scantling runners so that they may be 

 easily hauled from one part of the field to another. 



Open sheds are sometimes provided for swine to run into. 

 Where such are used they should always open to the south. 

 The north, east and west sides should be tightly boarded 

 and battened so as to protect the pigs from winds and driv- 

 ing snow and rains. 



If the larger combination pen is adapted to your con- 

 ditions you should plan it according to instructions already 

 given in this lecture, and in previous ones, as regards cheap- 

 ness, convenience and the comfort and health of your pigs. 



The pen should be placed east and west so as to face 

 the south. The feed room should be in one end and should 

 be large enough to accommodate grain bins and cooker and 

 fuel. There should be an alleyway of at least five feet in 

 width, but eight feet would be better. Pens should be eight 

 by eleven feet on both sides of the alley. It adds to the 

 convenience if you can have small swing doors, two feet 

 wide, leading from the alley into each pen. There should 

 also be a two and a half foot swing door in the partition 

 separating each pen so that the pigs may be moved easily 

 from one pen to another. Leading from each pen to an out- 

 side yard there should be a door two and a half feet high 

 by two feet wide. This can be a drop door which can be 

 easily raised or lowered by having a rope reaching from the 

 alleyway over a pulley in the ceiling just above the door 

 and then attached to the top of the door. 



As has been already mentioned, the walls may be made 

 of hollow cement blocks, but a wooden wall as previously 

 described is more desirable. 



