THE FEEDING AND SHELTERING OF SWINE. 975 



sleeping apartments may be lean-to structures, back of the feeding rooms, 

 and with a door to each, hung on hinges at the top, so it may easily 

 swing either way when a hog pushes it. The pens must be cleaned into 

 a wheelbarrow, rolled along the passage on a running way laid for dump- 

 ing directly upon the compost heap. 



Xm. The Best Form of Hog Bam. 



The best form of hog burn we have ever used was a central building, 

 twenty-four feet square and two stories high ; the upper stories arranged 

 with bins for meal, and a corn crib, with chutes running below. The 

 twelve-foot square in the center of the lower story is used exclusively for 

 the cooking apparatus, the first range of pens adjonnng being for breeding 

 sows and the younger pigs, since it is the warmest part of the building. 

 Thence wings extend on each of the four sides, as in the plan of a hog 

 barn first described, except that this being intended for both winter and 

 summer feeding, a door communicating from the sleeping pens to a 

 yard beyond should be added. 



In this way we have kept five hundred hogs, and, by proper attention 

 to their feeding and sanitary condition, alwavs breeding our own stock 

 with but slight loss from epidemics. The water supply was ample and 

 pure. The pens were kept regularly washed; the offal was carried, to 

 the compost heap and covered regularly with earth ; and the hogs had 

 always by them ashes and salt, and also a supply of bituminous coal 

 slack. For cut of hog barn, see page 980. 



XIV. Comparative Value of. Light and Heavy Hogs. 



We have heretofore shown that an animal, if allowed to lose flesh when 

 growing, does so at the ex}3ense of ultimate profits. This is especially 

 true of swine. No feeder can afford to winter pigs with a view of gettincr 

 heavy weights, unless under exceptional circumstances. It costs too 

 much. Hogs weighing from 400 to 600 pounds will not bring so much 

 per pound as lighter fat hogs, and with hogs as with other stock, every 

 year they are kept their daily gain becomes less and less. 



Hogs weighing 200 pounds, or theresbout, will bring more money in any 

 market than those of any other weight ; for hogs of this weight cut up 

 better into hams, bacon, and family side pork, than heavier ones. No 

 one wants a ham, for instance, tliat will weigh twenty-five to thirty 

 pounds ; there is too much fat on it for the lean. Thick bacon does not 

 sell well, for very fat bacon is not liked. Hogs if properly fed may be 

 turned off weighing 200 to 250 pounds at nine months old; and under 

 ordinary good feeding, at ten or eleven months old. We have 



