BUILDING CONSTRUCTION 179 



and air. While the larger piggeries are mostly roofed in, some 

 object to this method of housing on the ground that it tends to 

 produce delicate stock. It is clear that such opponents to this 

 system do not appreciate the fact that the housing of animals at all 

 is to protect them from adverse weather conditions, and that it is as 

 simple to erect a hygienic piggery as a hygienic stable for horses. 



Large piggeries are sometimes arranged so that the buildings 

 occupy three sides of a square, the fourth being open and facing 

 the south; or in the form of one or more buildings with the pens 

 arranged down each side with a passage running down the centre. 

 This latter arrangement is more economical with labour and has 

 no objectionable features. Its construction should be on the follow- 

 ing lines : 



A pig, like all other animals, requires plenty of fresh air and, 

 as it is susceptible to draughts, needs an air-space in the building 

 sufficiently great to prevent a too frequent exchange of the air. If 

 reference is made to the table given on page 90, it will be seen that 

 the cubic space for a large fatting pig or a sow should not be 

 less than 270 cubic feet, and may with advantage be considerably 

 greater. Practical experience has shown that approximately 100 

 square feet is a suitable floor space for a sow with a litter of pigs, 

 and that a pen of this size will comfortably hold three or four 

 fatting pigs according to their size. The most convenient arrange- 

 ment of space is to have the pens about 12 feet long and 8 feet wide, 

 thus with a feeding passage 7 feet wide down the centre with pens 

 on each side, the inside width of the building will be 23 feet. The 

 walls need not be higher than 7 feet and the height of the roof with 

 a span of 23 feet would be 6 feet 6 inches (if slate covered). With 

 the floor space allotted as suggested this will give an air-space per 

 fatting pig of 471 cubic feet if three pigs are kept in one pen 

 or 353 cubic feet for four pigs. 



If the pens are arranged with one dimension greater than the 

 other, as described, instead of in the form of a square, one part 

 can be conveniently marked off for sleeping quarters and the other 

 part, which holds the food-trough, for feeding. With this arrange- 

 ment it will usually be found that the pigs when they have grown 

 to any size will not foul their sleeping quarters, but will pass to the 

 other part to get rid of their excreta. The arrangement is shown in 

 the plan. The floor of the sleeping quarters may be built two or 

 three inches higher than the remainder of the space and should be 

 surrounded by a low cement curb with the exception of a small space 

 left for washing and urine drainage. The sleeping portion of the 

 pen may or may not be fitted with a removable wooden platform, 



