Care and Management of Swine 301 
486. The hog lot. — The lot in which hogs are quartered should 
be such as can be kept clean. A filthy and carelessly kept lot 
encourages disease by providing lodgment for the germs; and 
constant cleanliness is the most effective means of preventing 
germ dissemination. Where disease germs have once been es- 
tablished, an absolutely thorough disinfection is essential to 
eradicate them. To facilitate cleanliness and disinfection, at 
least a part of the lot should be paved with brick, stone, or con- 
crete. On this pavement the cots may be placed during the winter 
season, and on it the feeding may be done. 
487. Hog-wallows. — Some very successful breeders heartily 
favor hog-wallows, while others equally as successful are much 
opposed to their use. Those who are outspoken in opposition to 
the wallow have perhaps been influenced from infections due to a 
filthy wallow, or from infections at the time of an outbreak of 
cholera. There can be no doubt that filthy wallows are often a 
source of danger, nor can there be any doubt that once a cholera 
hog wallows in the water, however clean, all other hogs wallowing 
in or drinking this contaminated water are likely to contract the 
dreaded disease. 
On the other hand, with the healthy herd there can be no ob- 
jections to a clean mud wallow, and there are many advantages 
to be derived from it. During the heat of summer the hog cools 
mainly by radiation, and a cool mud bath is very soothing; it 
cleans the scurf from the skin and enables the hog to find protec- 
tion from the flies. This wallow or mud bath should be so ar- 
ranged that fresh water may be added as needed, and, to imsure 
absolute freedom from all germ life, a quart of coal-tar dip may be 
poured into the wallow occasionally (p. 299). 
488. Diseases of swine. — While swine are not ordinarily 
considered as being subject to so great a variety of diseases as 
horses, cattle, or sheep, they are very often attacked by ailments 
far more serious than afflict any other class of farm animals. 
Chief of these diseases are cholera, swine plague, and tuberculosis. 
