386 Western Live-stock Management 



desirable. On farms where sheep as well as pigs are kept, 

 the dipping vat is ordinarily already installed, but where 

 sheep are not kept and only a small number of pigs are 

 raised, it may be considered too expensive to install a 

 dipping vat. In the latter case a hole may be dug in the 

 ground and water poured into it and the sheep dip or 

 crude oil added to it. The pigs are then allowed to 

 wallow in it at their pleasure, and in hot weather they 

 will keep themselves free from vermin. The difficulty 

 with this method is that the wallow will soon become 

 foul, and if sows which are suckling pigs are allowed 

 to run into it they daub themselves with mud so that the 

 little pigs get the mud into their stomachs, causing some 

 losses. This difficulty may be largely obviated by lining 

 the hole with planks, or in other words, building a box of 

 suitable size and embedding it in the earth, allowing the 

 edges to extend slightly above the level of the ground. 

 If the sides are high enough to avoid splashing the water 

 over, a mud-hole can be avoided. The wallowing vat 

 should be embedded more deeply in the ground at one side 

 than at the other, so that pigs may lie in the water at 

 different depths as they desire, and so that they can get 

 in and out of the vat without difficulty. Wallowing vats 

 of concrete are often used and they are very satisfactory 

 and not particularly expensive. 



Rubbing posts, consisting of bagging or some other 

 absorbent material tightly bound around posts, located 

 conveniently for the pigs to rub on them and saturated 

 with crude oil, have been recommended as a means for 

 keeping pigs free from vermin, but the results have not 

 been entirely satisfactory. There are too many other 

 posts which are convenient for the pigs to rub on, and they 

 do not use the oiled posts enough. Various devices 



