530 = 264 
Practical Agriculture. 
Arrangements 
and fittings 
of sties. 
part of the live stock ; sometimes reared and sold as suckling 
and porkers, sometimes fattened on a large scale for bacon, an 
sometimes bred and disposed of as stores, or kept merely p 
manure-makers in the straw-yard. 
Housing pigs. The best practice in the housing of pigs is summed up b 
Mr. J. Bailey Denton thus : " Keeping the boar in a detache 
building, separated from the other swine ; arranging the sti( 
with feeding-passages under cover for farrowing sows, an 
fattening hogs, and both with access to open yards ; and cor 
structing the sties with an impervious floor, so that they ma 
be cleared of all filth." 
Boars housed singly, have room enough in a sty 6 feet squar 
with a small side yard in addition. A sow requires a space i 
10 feet by 6 feet, and a separate yard accessible to the your 
pigs. When used for fattening hogs, such a sty accommodati 
four or five. 
For feeding-troughs iron is the best material ; and it is usu 
to have a swinging flap from the top of the dwarf wall in whi( 
the trough is set, so that the bottom edge can be closed by be 
against either the front or back edge of the trough as desired. I 
this simple device, the pigs are excluded from the trough whi 
their food is being placed in it. To prevent the smothering 
young pigs by being overlaid by the sow, an excellent contrivan 
is a bar or rod, placed about 8 inches from the wall all round t 
sty, and about 8 inches from the ground, thus providing a spa 
for the escape of the little pigs between the wall and their moth( 
An impervious floor, cleaned by frequent washing, subdu 
the objectionable effluvium from warmly housed swine ; but t 
building must be thoroughly ventilated, either by raised ridg 
tiles or openings in the roof. 
Age of .-iows at The SOW is commonly taken to the boar when ten to twel 
ronmiencement months old, and as young as eight months in the case of a choi 
°' early maturity breed ; and the general practice is to have t\ 
litters in a year, namely, in spring and in autumn, avoiding t 
hot summer weather for farrowing, and also the winter, exec 
when the object is to sell sucking pigs in that season. Sows a 
seldom kept after they are three years old. 
Farrowing. As to care and attention at the time of farrowing, it is t 
practice of some of the best managers to allow only a very sm; 
quantity of litter in the house or pen, to prevent perhaps an aci 
d(mtal smothering of the pigs. A basket with straw and flam 
lining is provided, and fenced off from access by the sow ; as t 
pigs come they are placed in the hamper and covered up warm 
and they are all given to the sow when the farrowing is co 
eluded. Her first food is milk and bran or pollard, giv 
warm ; but in a few days she returns to her ordinary food. 
