Milk River Valley News

KEEPING HOG HOUSES DRY.

Those who have owned hogs that suffered with rheumatism during the winter have properly ascribed the trouble to the damp floors. It is difficult to keep the floors of the hog-houses dry under the usual plan of pens which are found on most farms for, while the idea of a bedroom for the animals saves much trouble, it is not an easy task to educate hogs so that they will not soil their beds. A hoghouse was recently seen which was an ideal in its way. When it was built the floor was inclined from the rear toward the front quite sharply and a trough arranged just under the front of the floor boards which held the liquid excrements going into it through a number of inch holes bored in the planking in the floor: This trough was arranged so that its contents ran off into a barrel placed for its reception at one end of the house. It required some careful work to construct this arrangement, but the plan works nicely and the floor of the house, and consequently the bedding, is comparatively dry. Of course, the dry floor could be obtained by boring holes at frequent intervals through the planks of any level floor, but then the manure would be lost, which would hardly be profitable. Care should be used in bedding so that the hogs have sufficient to make them comfortable, yet not so that they will destroy too much either by soiling it or eating it. Furthermore, one should be as careful in cleaning out the hoghouse each day as they would be the horse stable. General opinion to the contrary, hogs do not like wet, soiled bedding any better than do horses. Remove the bedding daily and treat it exactly as the bedding for horses is treated. - Indianapolis News.