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 most 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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