972 



THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



In the portable pen the lower piece to which the boards are 

 nailed can be placed in the right position to act as a guard. 

 The door is hung with a pivot hinge, so as to remain always 

 closed. I would recommend, where this is used, that a small 

 aperture be made for the pigs, as they will not be able to man- 

 age the door till some weeks old. 



These pens are not expensive, as about one hundred and 

 twenty-five feet of lumber will be sufficient for one of them. 

 Care should be taken to place them where there is no danger 

 of their being flooded, and when used for early spring pigs it 

 is prudent to bank up a little around them so no cold can enter. 

 As March pigs are a necessity to the breeder of fine stock, 

 and also to the farmer who wishes to fatten his pigs without 

 wintering them, and the weather is so uncertain at this season, 

 the cold winds and driving storms causing enormous losses of 

 pigs, I am convinced that on farms where hogs are a staple 

 product it would pay the farmer to arrange for warming the 

 breeding-pens by fire. Some years since I called on Mr. Wm. 

 Greer, on a blustery March day, and found him in an old ten- 

 ant house which he had 

 partitioned off into eight 

 pens, five by six feet each, 

 with a hall four feet wide 

 through the center, in 

 which stood a stove (S), 

 a swill-barrel, and a few 

 sacks of ground feed. 



The diagram shows 

 how the pens were ar- 

 ranged. Each compart- 

 ment had a small door 

 communicating with the lot in which the building stood. It 

 will be seen that a building sixteen by twenty feet would ac- 

 commodate eight sows ; and a building of this size would not 

 be costly, and all the partitions could be made movable, so they 

 could be taken out, and the room used for other purposes during 

 the larger part of the year. If the double hog-house which I 



S. 



TWENTY FKET. 



HOUSE FOR BROOD Sows ARRANGED FOR FIRE. 



