148 Forty Years' Experience of a Practical Hog Man. 



If the SOW is a good milker there is all the more danger. 

 In this case it would be well to feed the sow, for two or three 

 weeks, on a ration that would not produce so much milk. 

 This would be a great help in keeping down the trouble, 

 but the pigs should be made to take plenty of exercise 

 daily before any such condition appears. 



There are several ways of compelling this exercise. One 

 is to take the litter some distance from the sleeping place 

 or nest and put them on the ground and let them work their 

 way back. It makes no difference how far this distance is, 

 if you are sure they will get back to the nest. If this cus- 

 tom is followed daily you will lose no pigs from so-called 

 thumps. 



Another plan is to take the pigs out of the nest and get 

 after them with a broom and if they will not run away from 

 you, force them to do so, by pushing them along. 



Any system is all right that will compel lots of exercise. 



ANOTHER KIND OF "THUMPS"— PLEURA- 

 PNEUMONIA. 



There is another trouble one often runs up against 

 when he walks out among his pigs in the fall, or m fact at 

 almost any time. He finds a half-grown animal, or even a 

 mature one, breathing short and fast with a perceptible 

 jerk in the flank and back of the heart along the shoulders. 

 This is a pretty sure symptom of serious trouble, and is 

 generally an unfailing sign of what is known as Swine 

 Plague, or what would be called, in the human race. Pneu- 

 monia. This is a dangerous disease and is one of the ' ' so- 

 called" varieties of hog cholera and is really more danger- 

 ous. There is little that can be done with hogs in this con- 

 dition. They should be given a warm dry place to sleep, 

 thoroughly rubbed with some strong heating liniment, that 

 is penetrating, all along the sides; back of the elbow; be- 

 tween the fore legs; all about the vital organs; then, if 

 in a shivering condition, cover them with blankets or 

 something to keep them warm, and keep them where no 

 draft or cold air can strike them. It would be well, in a 

 severe case, to consult the family physician or a good Vet- 

 erinarian with a view of giving them some internal treat- 

 ment. The animals will ap]iear very gaunt and probably 



