144 HARRIS ON THE PIG. 



danger from fungi than where a large quantity of poor 

 manure was frequently used. 



On many farms half the value of the manure made by 

 pigs is wasted. There is no part of the establishment so 

 miserably managed as the pig pen. It is often nothing 

 more than a pen of rails, with a little hovel in one corner, 

 covered with corn-stalks, or straw, and the pigs are left 

 to eat the corn on the ground, and wallow in mud and 

 filth. If pork can be made at a profit in this way, it must 

 be a good business when conducted properly. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



PIGGERIES AND PIG PENS. 



In selecting a site for a pig pen, the first requisite is 

 dry ness. A side hill, sloping towards the barn-yard, is a 

 desirable location ; and if this cannot be found in a con- 

 venient place, it is not a difficult or expensive matter, with 

 a dirt scraper and a span of horses, to form a basin in the 

 barn-yard, using the dirt to make a high and dry founda- 

 tion for the pig pens, and forming a slope towards the 

 basin, so that the liquid from the pens will rapidly drain 

 away to the manure heap. If the soil is not dry, it must 

 be drained with tile, or stone underdrains, at least two 

 feet deep ; and if there is sufficient fall, four feet would 

 be far better. These underdrains are not designed to 

 carry off the water from the surface, but to make the soil 

 underneath dry. Surface drainage must be attended to 

 also ; for, as the liquid from well-fed pigs is the most valu- 

 able portion of the manure, it is especially important that 

 the whole of it should either be absorbed by the straw or 

 other bedding in the pen, or drain away to the manure heap. 



The next important consideration in locating the pig 



