88 PoETT Years' Experience of a Practical Hog Mak. 



water. While steam is getting up the water is let into the 

 barrels or mixing tank, which, in our case, is on wheels and 

 divided into four compartments, and as soon as steam is up 

 the hose is turned in and in a few minutes the water is as 

 hot as necessary. We then mix in the feed, perhaps of sev- 

 eral different mixtures in the four compartments, to ac- 

 commodate the animals of different ages and conditions. 

 This is fed and quickly eatlen, when the pigs go back to 

 their warm sleeping houses, thoroughly satisfied and con- 

 tented. Whereas, if cold or ice water was used, it would 

 require most of the day for the animal heat to warm the 

 pig up to its normal temperature, thus taking more feed 

 and giving far less satisfactory results. 



There are various methods of getting hot water for the 

 purpose of mixing the feed for pigs during cold weather. 

 There is manufactured a very desirable outfit for heating 

 water by process of steam, with an attachment to tempo- 

 rarily or permanently warm farrowing pens. We speak ad- 

 visedly regarding this cooker for the reason we formerly 

 used two of them, but in later years thought we needed a 

 larger affair and purchased a ten-horse-power steam boiler, 

 which has proven a great success. 



There are other kinds of hot-water heaters made for this 

 purpose, as well as the old-fashioned kettle set in a stone 

 arch, which will do where but little hot water is needed, but 

 it would be entirely unfit for furnishing hot water for a 

 large herd. 



The kind of steam generator or hot-water heater is im- 

 material so long as it does the work and furnishes enough 

 for mixing the feed for the herd, but I must insist that, for 

 young pigs before and just after weaning, warm feed is 

 necessary for best results and is of equal value for young 

 shotes. 



When the hogs are well matured it is not necessary to 

 give them this extra attention and they can make good 

 growth and development on dry feed, where plenty of pure 

 water is supplied for them. This saves much labor and pre- 

 vents the freezing of swill in troughs. 



Of course the breeders in the southern States and warmer 

 countries are not supposed to have this extra expense in 



