pigs: weaning and growth 153 



something more than much l)edding-. If too much bed- 

 ch'ng- is provided the natural tendency is to allow it to 

 remain longer in use than a smaller quantity would be, 

 and it becomes damp and filthy. With fall pigs partic- 

 ularly there is danger in such cases of cough or other 

 ailments that are a check to thrift. A moderate quantity 

 of bedding, changed so that the bed is always dry and 

 decently clean, is far better than a large quantity. 



Damp beds and pens are a tax not only on the vitality 

 of the pigs, but on the feed bin, and afford the conditions 

 under which disease germs multiply. The preventive is 

 abundant sunshine. One writer has said that swine 

 breeders and feeders spend money enough for dis- 

 infectants and cholera cures to pay the interest on the 

 national debt, "and likely the men who are spending the 

 most money for loud-smelling disinfectants are the ones 

 who fail to appreciate nature's best gift to man — sun- 

 shine. It is the source of life to vegetable and animal. 

 The wood and coal we feed our fires with are but stored- 

 up sunshine. Sunshine warms and cheers. It is essen- 

 tial to life. It is as essential to health. Its power to 

 destroy germs of disease is really a new discovery. Our 

 mothers knew the value of sunshine as a sweetener of 

 milk crocks and featlier beds, but the why they knew not, 

 l)ut s(j long as they loved tidiness and sweetness in the 

 milk room and home and were careful to keep the crocks 

 and ])eds sweet by exposure to the sun, they were killing 

 microbes just as surely as did the scientist who proved 

 his work, and gave us the result of his patient effort." 



