124 LIVINGSTON COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 



have used, the nails I have driven in my efforts to make a 

 model pen is something appalling. It does not suit me now, 

 but it is better than any thing I have before used. My 

 present pen was formerly a corn crib. It is 50 feet long and 

 14 feet wide, with a passage-way on one side, three feet 

 wide, which connects with my cattle barn. In one end of 

 the pen are two vats, seven feet in diameter and two feet 

 deep. These vats are supplied by water from a force-pump, 

 which is worked by a wind-mill. The vats are, during the 

 greater portion of the year, kept full of sour food. The corn 

 is ground upon the farm by a large two-horse crusher, and 

 soured. I have found by long experience that corn fed 

 in this manner gives the best results. All the swill made 

 upon the farm is also thrown into these vats. One vat is 

 alwaj-s ready for feed, and the other vat is always in the 

 process of souring. (^See plan.^ 



This pen is subdivided into eight compartments, on every 

 side of which, except where the trough runs, pieces of 2x4 are 

 fastened uprightly, to which, at a distance of 6 to 8 inches from 

 the floor, a 4-inch strip is nailed around the whole compartment, 



TO PREVENT THE SOWS FROM LYING UPON THEIR PIGS 



when they are throwing a litter. This seems to be a small item, 

 but I have saved many litters of pigs in this manner. Sta- 

 tionary troughs are set into each pen, so that they can be filled 

 from the outside. I use these pens for fattening hogs, as well 

 as for breeding, and they will hold with ease about thirty head. 

 As soon as one lot is fattened, I put in another, and keep these 

 pens full for seven months of the year. 



I run about ten breeding sows of the Berkshire stock. 

 My sows gemerally come in about the first of April and Sep- 

 tember. The young pigs run with the sows for six weeks, dur- 

 ing which time they are taught to eat. They are weaned in a 

 separate pasture and fed either soaked or boiled feed. I com- 

 mence feeding all my hogs young and old very early. That 

 is, just as soon as the corn is fairly out of tlie milk. I take 

 them all up and sort them, and put them in pens out of doors 



