58 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February 
A House for Breeding and Slaughtering 
Swine. 
BY COL. P. D. CURTIS. 
The plans and elevations here given are for 
a building of sufficient size for a large farm, 
cupola, could be used to lower heavy arti¬ 
cles, and also as a passage for roots, which 
may be conveyed directly from a wagon to 
the bottom of the cellar from the door oppo¬ 
site. There should be another outer door and 
trap through the floor in the end of the build- 
Fig. 1.— FRONT ELEVATION OF THE PIGGERY. 
where the breeding of pigs and the fattening 
and slaughtering can be extensively carried 
on. The building should be 50 feet in length 
and 24 feet in width, with posts ten feet high. 
This would give ample room for pens 12 feet 
deep and 6 feet wide, with the exception 
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Fig. 
-MAIN FLOOR OF THE PIGGERY. 
of one, which could be made 8 feet wide. 
For small farms the building need not be so 
long. The chamber should be laid with 
matched plank, so that grain may be spread 
upon the floor and stored there. In the cen¬ 
ter of the building there should be a cupola, 
with a tackle to hoist articles into the cham¬ 
ber. The main building should be raised at 
least two feet, which would bring the floor 
three feet above the ground, and admit of 
handy unloading. This would also allow a 
space for windows in the cellar wall. The cel¬ 
lar should extend under the entire building. A 
trap door in the ground floor, and under the 
ing where the stairs lead to the chamber. At 
this end of the building the pens for the 
boars should be located, and a door should 
open outwardly from the end pen, with an 
inside door to prevent its being broken open 
by the boars, so that a wagon can be backed 
up to it to admit of loading 
and unloading live hogs 
from crates without any lift¬ 
ing. Two large bins or race¬ 
ways should be constructed 
over the cellar stairs leading 
from the chamber in which 
to store and 
conduct grain, 
one to the 
ground floor, 
and the other 
to the cellar, 
from which it can be conveyed 
in a spout directly into the cook¬ 
ing kettle, which should be situ¬ 
ated in the cellar at the foot of 
the cellar stairs (see figures 2 and 
3). This is for convenience as 
well as safety from fire, and to 
keep the food from freezing. A 
cistern should be in one corner 
of the cellar, and a tight partition made 
across the cellar dividing the cooking-room 
from the root-room. A 
tackle in the chamber should 
connect with the kettle 
through trap doors in the 
floors above to allow the 
raising and lowering of hogs 
into the kettle for scalding. 
The largest pen alluded to 
above should have a sliding 
door in front, connecting it 
with the main floor, so that 
it may be used as a slaughter 
pen, and the pigs drawn 
from it to the trap leading to the kettle (see 
a, in figure 2). Figure 2 also shows the posi¬ 
tion of the stairs to the chamber and cellar. 
as well as the location of the pens, and the 
fenders (/,/) in the pens, which consist of a 
plank set horizontally against the sides a foot 
wide and ten inches above the floor. These 
fenders are for the purpose of keeping the 
sows from crushing the pigs against the 
partition. The pump should lie on 
the main floor to make it handy 
(see P), and the water can be con¬ 
ducted in a spout through the trap 
to the kettle below. The pens con¬ 
nect with each other by sliding 
doors, and also with the yards in 
the rear in the same way. Each 
pen should have a window, and 
there should be windows enough 
in the building to make it light. 
This description refers to the main 
building. For a large business 
there should, be an extension 15 
feet in length, on the end, in which 
the kettle is located for dressing, 
and to hang up the slaughtered 
animals. This room should con¬ 
nect with the main building by a 
door opposite the trap leading to 
the kettle, so that the animals, 
when scalded, may be lowered to a 
platform in it. Another tackle 
should be suspended from the roof 
in this room, so that the hogs may 
be hoisted by it from the platform, 
and swung round to hooks on the 
outside. In this room the animals can be dress¬ 
ed, and butchering is comfortable as well as 
convenient. There should be a large sliding 
door in the front to admit of a wagon back¬ 
ing in underneath the tackle so as to load the 
pork handily. During summer, and in win¬ 
ter, when not required for butchering, the 
extension can be used as a sleeping room for 
hogs. The ground floor of the main building 
should be laid with 2-inch pine plank 
matched, and the crevices filled with hot 
coal tar. The end next to the troughs should 
be raised 2 inches higher than the other. The 
"■V/AT/S 
. 4.—REAR ELEVATION OF THE PIGGERY. 
bottom of the extension should be on the 
ground, excepting a plank flooring for the 
stove and around it; and this can be tem¬ 
porary, as well as the platform on which the 
hogs are laid after scalding. The inside of 
the main building should be lined with 
matched stuff to make it warm in winter. 
The manure should be thrown into the yards 
in the rear, which are connected with the 
pens, and with each other, by sliding doors. 
Gates lead into these yards (figure 1) through 
which a wagon can be backed. In figure 4, 
which is the rear of the building, the posi¬ 
tion of the gutters is shown. There is a door 
on the end of the main building, with tackle 
connecting with the kettle and the platform 
in the extension or dressing room, through an 
opening in the backside of the extension. 
