248 THE RURAL EFFICIENCY GUIDE STOCK 



Conditioners for Hogs. 



Keep a mixture of equal parts of air slaked-lime and salt before the 

 hogs. This will help keep them in good health. Put this in a box where 

 they cannot get on to it with their feet. 



Charcoal is fine for keeping the hogs in good health if kept before them 

 continually. (Good charcoal can be made by burning corn cobs to a red hot 

 mass and throwing water upon them.) 



Smartweed tea is recommended as being excellent for bringing a hog 

 into good health at the first indication of anything being wrong. To make 

 the tea, take common smartweed, in its green state, press out the juice, and 

 mix it in the swill. Use just enough to make them sneeze hard. If one 

 desires to use the herb the year around it will only be necessary to gather it 

 when in bloom, tie it into bunches, and hang it in a dry, sheltered place. A 

 tea can then be made by boiling the weed. The smartweed with the nar- 

 rowest leaves is best for the purpose. 



Keep a mixture of soft coal and wood ashes before the hogs. It is also 

 well to add a little salt. To last ]00 hogs about 4 months use about 5 tons of 

 so-called slack coal, 4 barrels of wood ashes, and one barrel of salt. This 

 can be kept in a box so that the hogs can dig it out from the bottom thus 

 keeping them out of it with their feet. 



Acute Indigestion. 



Too fast eating of strange food; overeating, or fermentation of food 

 already eaten ; frozen food or gas develops acute or crampy attacks, and may 

 cause rolling, or loud squealing. Immediate attention should be given as 

 chronic cases develop from lack of attention. 



Treatment. Give a tablespoonful of aromatic spirits of ammonia every 

 hour until the bloat goes down. Follow this up with a teaspoonful of ginger 

 or a tablespoonful of powdered charcoal at a dose in the feed two or three 

 times daily. Hot water is used by many farmers. Proper feeding will elim- 

 inate most of the diseases in stock. Read thoroughly all the Animal Hus- 

 bandry Department. 



Aphthous Fever. 



This is a contagious, eruptive disease, appearing between the toes or in 

 the mouth in the form of tumors. Contagion; improper feeding, and filth 

 are the causes. 



Symptoms. Appearance of blisters or tumors on the mouth or between 

 the toes; fever; perhaps dullness. 



Treatment. Isolate the diseased hogs and dress the hoofs with sulphate 

 of copper or lime wash. 



Thoroughly mix the manure with lime or a solution of one teaspoonful 

 carbolic acid to a cup of water and put it where the other animals will not 

 come in contact with it. Chloride of lime will act in the same way. Put 

 some strong vinegar in the drinking water of the affected hogs or give them 

 skim milk to drink. 



