946 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



a farmer finds that the hogs of a neighbor are diseased, and the 

 water to which they have access flows through his farm, not a 

 day should be lost in removing his hogs from the fields where 

 they can drink the water. If the owner of a herd notices any 

 signs of disease, or unthriftiness even, he should at once change 

 his treatment of them. Separate the sick from the well, and, if 

 possible, change the herd to a fresh lot or pasture. 



I would recommend also a change of food. If the hogs have 

 been on pasture, I would begin moderate feeding with grain and 

 slops. If they have been on heavy corn feed I would give some 

 green food if it could be had, or if not warm slop of bran and 

 oil meal. I have known instances where the disease made its 

 appearance, with every prospect of carrying off an entire herd, 

 when, by an immediate change of diet, its ravages were at once 

 stopped. In one case the disease appeared in November in a 

 herd of sixty spring pigs, and the owner turned them at once on 

 a field of rye and stopped feeding corn. In three weeks all the 

 symptoms of disease had disappeared, and the hogs remained 

 thrifty all Winter. 



Another case that came under my notice was a herd of eighty 

 stock hogs that began to show signs of disease about mid- winter. 

 The owner reduced their feed to a single ear of corn each per 

 day, but fed his cattle with which the hogs were running five 

 bushels of corn per day, and allowed the hogs to get most of 

 their living from the droppings of the cattle, and very soon 

 noticed an improvement in the condition of the hogs, and they 

 wintered without further loss. 



Another cause of disease I believe to be the practice of feed- 

 ing in the same lot and often the same spot in the lot for 

 years, so that the soil becomes contaminated with the excre- 

 ment, and in muddy or dusty weather the hogs must take more 

 or less of this with their food. When hogs are confined to a 

 feed lot there should always be a feed floor, and it should be 

 cleaned regularly so as to be free from dung, mud, and dust. 

 Irregular feeding I believe also to be a cause of disease, for any 

 thing that interferes with digestion or lowers the vitality invites 

 disease. It is a common thing to see hogs overfed, so that from 



