480 



Popular Science Monthly 



house are 5' in height. When the last 

 course of tile is being laid, do not for- 

 get to insert the anchor bolts in the 

 mortar joints every 6'. Let the thread- 

 ed end of the bolt project at least 2^/^" 

 so that the 2" x 8" wood plate can be 

 securely bolted to the tile wall. It is 

 then possible to spike the roof rafters 

 of the house to this wood plate. As 

 the tile walls are going up. set in 

 place the door frames for the pen 

 doors and also the end doors. These 

 are only made of 2" x 8" planks, with 

 spikes driven into them so that they 

 will be well bonded to the tile walls. 



The roof building is the next step. 

 Make it at half pitch with the 2''x6" 

 rafters, 2' center to center. Use 16' lum- 

 ber and tie every set of rafters with 

 a 6'' board 12' long. This makes a 

 stiff frame and a solid foundation for 

 the roof. Any cheap lumber can be 

 used for sheathing. Space the boards 

 1%'' apart. The cedar shingles should 

 be applied with galvanized three-pen- 

 ny nails and laid with not over 4^/^'' 

 exposed to the weather. The roof sash 

 or the skylights have a metal flashing 

 so that they will not leak. These sash 

 frames are set in place as the roof is 

 being shingled. The roofing will run 

 up over the metal flashing. The glass 

 in the roof sash is covered with hard- 

 ware cloth to prevent hail damage. 

 That completes the shell of the house. 



The floors are the next step in 

 the process of erecting a modern hog 

 house. The tile for the floors may be 

 seconds. Lay them on a well-tamped 

 sand and gravel cushion and cover 

 the tile and the joints with a rich mix- 

 ture of sand and cement, mixed one to 

 two. A floor so made, with an air 

 space under it, is warm, drv and healthy. 

 The feed-alley floor is all concrete, 5' 

 thick, and the hog-troughs are made of 

 the same material. The pen partitions 

 can be made of either tile or wood 

 planks. Make the pens size 6' x 8'. 

 This is the generally accepted standard- 

 size farrowing pen. 



The recent cholera epidemics and 

 other swine troubles have in a large 

 measure been traced back to the old 

 filthy, germ-ridden, dark hog pens on 

 most corn-belt farms. This great loss 

 from disease has taken millions of dol- 



lars from hog growers' bank accounts. 

 It has driven home a lesson, never- 

 theless. It has, in a way, revolution- 

 ized the management of swine and has 

 brought about a general cleaning-up 

 policy, better sanitation and better 

 health for the porker, so that he wdil 

 be in a prime condition to fight dis- 

 ease when it appears. 



A Hen-House Water Supply Which 

 Will Not Freeze 



TO make a non-freezable drinking 

 fountain for the hen house the fol- 

 lowing material will be needed : One 

 soap or cracker box ; a lantern ; two gal- 

 vanized iron pails, about two-quart ca- 

 pacity ; and enough heavy asbestos paper 

 to line box with a double thickness to 

 keep in the heat generated by the lan- 

 tern and for fire prevention. 



The box must be large enough to hold 



The deflected heat from the lantern keeps 

 the fountain from freezing 



the lantern and two pails. Two holes 

 are cut in the top of box, one at each 

 end, allowing the pails to sink into the 

 box with only about 3" protruding; in- 

 side the box, between the pails, the lan- 

 tern should be placed. The heat will be 

 deflected by the lantern top and the box 

 around the water pails, thus keeping the 

 water a few degrees above freezing even 

 in coldest weather. 



The box is placed on a platform. 

 This, in addition to being a support for 

 perches on which the fowls stand while 

 drinking, is also the bottom of the heat 

 box upon which the lantern rests. When 

 filling or cleaning the lantern, the box 

 and pails are lifted from the platform, 

 but when filling the pails, they are sim- 

 ply removed from the holes. 



