132 



The Construction of Pigsties. [June, 



demned, though railway sleepers (if in good condition and well 

 bedded) are very serviceable, especially if an additional coating 

 of tar is given to preserve them. Bricks, however, make the 

 best kind of wall, and should be employed where possible if 

 only for the lower part of the building. A wooden fence may 

 be well built on the top of two or three suitably laid rows of 

 bricks. The jointure of the wall and the floor should be care- 

 fully attended to, as, if moisture gets in, the cement floor may 

 be broken and the whole work wasted. It is very advisable, 

 therefore, to add a little cement sill at the bottom of the wall 

 to fill up the angle, and make the water run away into the 

 channels. If bricks cannot be got — and there are many places 

 where bricks are scarce — stone flags may be set upright, and 

 made into a sort of paling. This is done in many parts of 

 Lancashire. But if it is found that neither bricks nor stone 

 can be got, and it is considered too expensive to build a con- 

 crete wall, wood must be used. In that case a sheet of zinc or 

 iron should be screwed on the wooden walls in the inside of the 

 pigsty to preserve them from damp. Walls should, of course, 

 be built firmly, but care should be taken not to build them so 

 high as to shut out the light and air from the swine, and a few 

 gaps may be left outside provided that they are not big 

 enough to allow any other animal such as a rat to get in. 

 These gaps should not be so many as to prevent the walls 

 being a protection against the wind and the cold. 



The walls being built it only remains to add the roof. It 

 should be raised well above the floor of the inner court, leaving 

 room for plenty of fresh air, without which the pigsty becomes 

 very foul and liable to spread disease. The roof should, in fact, 

 be high enough in at least one place to enable a man to stand 

 up when he is cleaning the floor. This can be easily done in 

 the kind of shed known as t.he " lean-to," which is the most 

 popular form. The material out of which the roof is made is of 

 no great importance provided that it keeps out the wet and the 

 cold. Tiles, slates, thatch may be used, and in many parts of 

 Yorkshire tarred brattice cloth is commonly employed. Iron, 

 however, should not be used, at any rate alone, as it lets in the 

 heat in summer and the cold in winter. A window is strongly 

 recommended for the purpose of letting in light, and for this 



