THE PIG. 479 



" The floor to the piggery is entirely unconnected with 

 the framework. Stringers are laid crosswise of the build- 

 ing on which the plank floor is laid. The alley is four feet 

 wide, with a door to each pen. "With this arrangement of 

 gates and doors, one man can put in place the most refrac- 

 tory old sow, or any other hog. 



"Let me say that our floors are of hard pine plank, 2 by 

 10 inches ; have been laid for eight or nine years, and that 

 about 200 hogs have been fed upon them each year, and 

 they now look as though they would last as much longer. '' 



ANOTHER PLAN OF SWINE HOUSE. 



As pork is largely grown in the West and accommoda- 

 tion is required for large herds, it will hardly be appropri- 

 ate to give the description of a pen with a less capacity 

 than for feeding 200 hogs in winter. As we have seen, 

 economy in feeding requires that the pen should be warm, 

 in order that the temperature may seldom, if ever, go below 

 60 degrees. With so large a number, the extra food re- 

 quired to keep up animal heat would soon pay for a warm 

 pen. Perhaps the cheapest plan to build a warm pen is to 

 use 2 x 4-inch studding, placed three feet apart, boarded up 

 outside and in, leaving a four-inch air space ; or, if the 

 weather-boarding is to be perpendicular, ribs, 2x4 inches, 

 may be spiked to outside of the studding, and the weather- 

 boarding nailed to these, leaving a six-inch air space, to be 

 filled with saw-dust or short-cut straw, well rammed in. 

 To prevent this filling from being a harbor for vermin, 

 mix a little coal-tar, or chloride of lime, or fine air-slaked 

 quick-lime with every layer. With this latter plan the out- 

 side may be built of cedar posts, in the manner described 

 by Dr. Stetson, above, placing cedar posts in the ground, 

 six feet apart. The height of the pen at the eaves should 

 be 8 feet. Our plan requires a building 28 feet wide, and 

 150 feet long, besides corn-cribs, cooking room and breed- 



