412 SWINE IN AMERICA 



the adoption of this plan, considerable loss was expe- 

 rienced from cholera and other diseases, and that exclu- 

 sion from all surface water apparently put an end to 

 such losses. A. J. Lovejoy says : "I have a good many 

 lots and not a water hole in them. Hogs will stand 

 more traveling if kept dry. They may be kept from 

 getting overheated by having good shade. \Xe use tem- 

 porary sheds 1 6 feet square, covered with brush so the 

 water may leak through, but they never get muddy." 



On the contrary, N. H. Gentry says : "Creating a breed 

 of hogs that do not like to wallow is going outside of 

 nature. People take mud baths for rheumatism. You 

 may have a clean brook, but the hogs won't like it. I 

 built boxes for them to bathe in, and 5 minutes after 

 the hogs got out they would be dry. Earth is a good 

 disinfectant. I do not believe in a filthy place, but I 

 never saw a hog that did not like a mudhole, and when 

 he gets in it he does not want water but wants to 

 wallow in the mud. It cleans the scurf from his skin. 

 If before taking him to an exhibition you let a hog 

 wallow in mud, you secure a skin finish you cannot 

 obtain in any other way. Nothing is more soothing 

 than mud. I tried to believe for years that it was not 

 for the hog's good, but I tell you that depriving a hog of 

 this mud bath is against nature. Nature is a pretty 

 risky thing either to play or fight with. I do not believe 

 all stiff hogs have rheumatism. I had an imported sow 

 that had never eaten corn in her life, and she foundered 

 and to her death was stiff; as plain a case of foundering 

 as I ever saw. I do not believe in fighting with nature. 

 What is better than to have the hogs go to a shady place 



