28 



FARMERS' BULLETIN" 874. 

 .1 Vii'thod of notch ill (f piys. 



1-ocation of mark. 



Outer side, next to head 



Outer side, midway between head and tip of ear. 



(,)uter side, next to tip of ear 



Inner side, next to head 



Inner side, midway between head and tip of ear. 

 Inner side, next to tip of ear 



Number indicated. 



Left ear. Right ear. 



The cuts may be made with a kiiife, but the most convenient 

 instrument is a punch which nicks the pigs' ears quickly and makes 

 a clean cut. Little trouble will be experienced in having the edges 

 of the cuts heal together, but if they should it is an easy matter to see 

 them on close inspection and to cut them open again. By this 

 method it is possible to number consecutively from 1 to over 100 

 with not more than two notches in either ear. 



SANITATION IN THE HOG LOT. 



The greatest drawbacks to the hog industry that breeders in this 

 country have to contend with are the losses through hog cholera, 

 tuberculosis, and the infestation of the animals, especially young pigs, 

 by parasites. Were it not for the fecmidity of swine their profitable 

 production in the presence of these serious diseases would be out of 

 the question. Li the following remarks on sanitation no attempt is 

 made to go into the details of the diseases affecting hogs or their 

 treatment. The object is merely to call attention to the simple 

 measures which may be used by any farmer to avoid, to a large 

 extent, the decimation of his herd by epizootics. Clean hness and 

 rational methods of management are relied upon by thousands of 

 farmers to keep their herds in health and vigor. They are the marks 

 of the good farmer and successful hog breeder. 



Hog cholera and swine plague, both highly fatal diseases charac- 

 terized by fever and heavy mortality, are so very similar that the 

 breeder may regard them as identical so far as his practical manage- 

 ment of the herd is concerned. Positive differentiation between the 

 two diseases can only be made by the most careful bacteriological 

 tests, and by employing the assistance offered by a fully equipped 

 laborator}^ However, sanitary preventive methods which are found 

 beneficial with one of these diseases will prove equally efficacious 

 with the other. 



There are a few fundamental facts which the breeder must re- 

 member if he is to avoid losses through hog cholera or swine plague. 

 The first is that they are specific diseases caused by germs, and the 

 contagion can not be spread from one animal to another or from one 

 herd to another except through the agency of these minute organisms. 



