CHAPTER XXVII 



EQUIPMENT 



The equipment required for hogs is not necessarily 

 expensive but it comprises numerous combinations for 

 the comfort of the animals and the convenience of the 

 attendant. Much ingenuity may be exercised in design- 

 ing equipment especially suitable to individual condi- 

 tions. It is very easy, however, to spend more money 

 than is at all necessary or profitable. 



HOUSES 



Pig houses are of two general classes : colony houses 

 designed to shelter a single sow and her litter, and cen- 

 tralized houses, designed to shelter a larger number of 

 pigs or sows. Neither has all the advantages, and both 

 kinds are often successfully used on the same farm where 

 more than one or two sows are kept. The colony houses 

 are economical in first cost, portable, easily kept clean 

 and sanitary, but they entail a greater. amount of labor and 

 the labor must be performed, in part at least, in the open and 

 exposed to the weather, while the centralized house affords 

 shelter to the attendant. The colony houses are designed 

 according to a wide variety of plans, but the A-shaped, 

 open-front house has been found mpst desirable for the 

 milder sections of the country. In colder localities, a 

 warmer house, that is, one with a closed front, is desirable. 



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