CARE OF HOGS. 367 



dark place. I do not allow the hog to eat his own excrement, 

 nor to inliale the stench arising from it. I clean all pens regu- 

 larly, giving plenty of bedding and changing it often in cold 

 weather. I do not crowd too many in one pen when fattening. 

 1 cook all food, if possible, for I am satisfied that sixty pounds 

 of cooked or scalded meal are equal to (that is, will make as 

 much pork as) one hundred pounds of raw corn. All hogs 

 should have an abundance of salt. I am well convinced that 

 no hog will ever have cholera if he has as much salt as he 

 requires. Any one observing the above rules will seldom have 

 a sick animal, or one that will fail to fatten. Sows heavy with 

 pig, should have a separate pen, and in size eight feet square. 

 Spike a 2x4 scantling all around on the inside of pen ten 

 inches from the floor and the same distance froi-u the wall. This 

 will give the pigs a chance at birth to escape overlaying. For 

 watering I prefer a continuous stream running through a suc- 

 cession of 6x10 inch troughs ; the pens running in a row any 

 desired length. Twelve dollars will furnish lumber and iron 

 with which any common farmer can make a mill that will work 

 a common well pump, which will furnish water for five hun- 

 dred hogs. For stock hogs running in a pasture, it is advisable 

 to keep a barrel or box of rock salt standing where the brine 

 will leach and saturate the earth for several feet around. Hogs 

 will lick this brine and earth, but will seldom eat salt in bulk, 

 as cattle will. I consider this an infallible preventive of 

 cholera. I never had a hog take that disease, although it has 

 slain its hundreds around me. 



