SWINE-HOUSING AND FATTENING. 991 



this matter will find that the labor of turning and fining can he- 

 reduced at least one-half by a judicious use of hogs in the barn- 

 yard. I find, also, that when hogs are confined, and furnished, 

 as I recommend, an outside floored peri, they can be made to 

 work over waste material, such as corn or broom-corn stalks, 

 sawdust, potato-vines, or the coarse bedding from the cow or 

 horse stable, and get it into a condition for use quicker than in 

 any other way ; and I estimate that hogs will half pay for their 

 keeping in this way. They will reduce in a short time the 

 coarsest material to a condition in which it can be forked inlo a 

 heap to rot, and at the same time will thoroughly mix with it 

 their rich droppings. 



It is an excellent plan to wheel the manure from the horse 

 and cow stables, and dump it where the hogs can be allowed to 

 run, and once in two or three weeks fork the contents of the 

 outer pig-pen on to the heap. A pig-pen can be kept free from 

 offensive odors in this way, and all the manure will be improved 

 in quality, as the horse manure is so heating as to be in danger 

 of loss by too active fermentation, while that of the pig and cow 

 is of a cold, sluggish nature. 



