130 THE FAT OF THE LAND 



hundred pigs of all sizes in good health and good 

 condition for forcing. Some of the swine, not 

 intended for market, would have more liberty ; 

 but close confinement in clean pens and small 

 runs was to be the rule. To crowd hogs in this 

 way, and at the same time to keep them free from 

 disease, would require special vigilance. The ordi- 

 nary diseases that come from damp and draughts 

 could be fended off by carefully constructed 

 buildings. Cleanliness and wholesome food ought 

 to do much, and isolation should accomplish the 

 rest. I have established a perfect quarantine 

 about my hog lot, and it has never been broken. 

 After the first invoices of swine in the winter 

 and spring of 1896, no hog, young or old, has 

 entered my piggery, save by the way of a sixty- 

 day quarantine in the wood lot, and very few 

 by that way. 



My pigs are several hundred yards from the 

 public roads, and my neighbor, Jackson, has 

 planted a young orchard on his land to the north 

 of my hog lots, and permits no hogs in this 

 planting. I have thus secured practical isolation. 

 I have rarely sent swine to fairs or stock shows. 

 In the few instances in which I have broken this 

 rule I have sold the stock shown, never return- 

 ing it to Four Oaks. 



Isolation, cleanliness, good food, good water, 

 and a constant supply of ashes, charcoal, and 

 salt, hav 7 e kept my herd (thus far) from those 

 dreadfully fatal diseases that destroy so many 



