474 SWINE IN AMERICA 



as good sanitary conditions he maintained by the use of 

 any other. And yet, notwithstanding these good quah- 

 ties, cement floors are strongly objected to, and justly 

 so, too, on the ground that pigs become crippled if re- 

 quired to nest in beds on them during the winter season. 

 Even thougli an abundance of bedding is used on cement 

 floors, bad results seem to follow just the same. There 

 are few worse places for a brood sow to farrow than on 

 a cement floor. She gathers the small amount of bed- 

 ding allowed her into a small pile, beds on it and the 

 newly born pigs wriggle off on the bare floor, which, 

 being slippery, prevents them from getting on their 

 feet, the cold floor soon exhausts them, and they perish. 

 It was with the object of overcoming these objections to 

 the cement floors that overlays were used." 



Of much the same mind is an Indiana breeder who 

 writes : "I do not like a cement floor, for it is always 

 damp. Then, too, it is too cold and hard and the pigs 

 will always have the rheumatism, and a cold and cough. 

 Give me a warm house on runners, one for each sow 

 when it is time for her to farrow. Before that time 

 two or three can occupy one house and be warmer." 



Examples of opposite estimates of the same propo- 

 sition are afi^orded in letters from three Iowa farmers 

 and breeders. One writes, saying: 



"Two years ago I put down a floor in the center of 

 my barn and used it for farrowing pens. The sows 

 raised an average of a fraction over seven pigs each and 

 I saw no sign of rheumatism. Last fall I floored all 

 my pens with cement, and have over i8o young pigs and 

 no rheumatism. My hogs have slept on cement every 



