VOL. XXXII. [
tap? S/
INDIANAPOLIS, IND.. MARCH 6. 1897.
NO. 10
K
EXPERIENCE DEFABX_Kl_j__r^
HOG RAISING.-No. 1.
Yards, Buildings, Beds.
1st Premium.—I build my houses on
oak ronners 2 by 6 or 8 inches 7 feet long
by 6 wide—use for siding and roofine
plank % by 12 in, scantling for frames 1]4
by 3 Inches. No floor,—bed with straw
or other material- Bore holes in end of
runners for clevises, hitch on with two
horses and move where you like. Such
houses are inexpensive and will last for
years. I do not have permanent yards,
but move from one field to another, as
they are changed into clover or other
grasses. Any portable plank fence, 3 or
4 boards high, is convenient for making
yards large or small, as ocoasion requires.
Stack straw convenient to pens for winter bedding, and change bedding often,
have feed and water near, and yon are
fixed for successful and profitable hog
raising, with little labor. This is experience. G.
2d Premium. — The breeding yard,
where a brood sow and her pigs are kept,
should contain about one acre of ground,
thoroughly ditched and well set in grass;
also a few good shade trees, and be so arranged that the hogs from the various
yards can come into the feeding house.
In every yard there must be a sleeping or
breeding house made'seven feet square,
on runners. Make the roof slant one
way, the lower side being three and ahalf
feet and the upper, or front side six feet
high. In the front there should be a door
two feet wide, extending from bottom to
top, and a window with strap hinges three
teat wide, extending from door across the
iront, as' near the front as possible. Cover
with shingles and put in a board floor.
By facing the above house to the south,
opening door and window the pigs get the
benefit of the sunlight and plenty of ventilation. The feeding house should be
built 20 feet wide, and long enough to accommodate your hogs. This building
shonld have a stone foundation for your
sills to rest on, and all center posts should
be set in the cement floor. To make a
cement floor, dig down one foot, paoking
firmly eight inches of gravel. For the
concrete foundation nse eight barrels of
gravel to one of the best cement. Thoroughly mix and make damp. Stamp this
in, four inches thick, in sections four feet
square. For the finishing coat take two
barrels of sand to one of cement. Have
one Inch of topping smoothed down
Make the sides six feet high; a gable roof.
Cover with shingles and put in fonr or
more good sized windows. Make a hall
four feet wide, extending through the
center of this house. Make your stalls
eight by ten feet, and as many stalls as
vou have yards. The doors opening into
the various yards to be fastened at the
top, so they will swing out and in. Every
stall should have a door opening into the
hall, and each stall shonld have a temporary partition so they may be divided,
making a place to feed and slop the pigs,
away from the greedy mother. Have awell
in the hog house or water piped. Use barrels with two fountains attached to each
barrel, so that one barrel will supply two
stalls with water. Bed with clean, dry
straw, and renew as often as it becomes
filthy, or every two weeks. When the
house is thoroughly clean sprinkle coal
oil over the floor and sides; occasionally
scatter some air slaoked lime on the floor,
and whitewash inside once a year.
Bartholomew Co.
Theo. Templeton.
3d Premium.—The yards for fattening
hogs should not be so large, but should
be on ground that is well drained, as fattening hogs do not need muoh exercise,
especially when they become a few
Months old. When they are younger
they have range of the rye and clover pas
rare. If there is any beech mast they
are then turned into the woods until
three or four weeks before selling, when
they are put ln smaller quarters and fed
corn and slop. The hog lot shonld be en-
tr „with a Sood fence. Any farmer
can build him a common pig pen without
'he use of any other tools than a saw,
square and hatchet.
Straighten three small logs, ss long as
»i°n w»nt on one side; place them about
■f.1"!*-. wet apart; use two-inch flooring
eight feet long; then build the frame only
seven feet wide, and let the floor project
six inches on each side. A trough can be
made from oak plank, but don't fasten
the frames too firmly to the floor, so the
noor can be easily removed when  it be
2S21e8 rotten. As to the beds, pick a
_Ei wh"e the water will run oft on all
it .t8, .^y. closing one side and both ends,
Jt stionld be high enough so the hogs can-
-SLu0?**!-' ro0** ofl; it shonld faoe the
couth, and the roof should slope only one
way, and it can he made of old refuse
stuff. The bed should be placed a few
yards from the feeding place, so as to
give exercise to the pigs. I alwavs use
leaves for,bedding. N. B.
Harrison Co.
In the first place to be successful in
starting pigs, they mnst have comfortable
quarters, if farrowed in winter or spring
months. We make one honse for one sow
and pigs, 6x6 ft. on 3 runners 2x4 inches;
then floor. Start the roof from floor, and
we have, by bringing the tops together,
the roof and siding. Gable and make a
door in one end. We strip the cracks.
Sows cannot lie on their pigs in a house
built this way. We take a team and pull
it to some convenient place to slop and
feed, build a fence around it and give a
small amonnt of bedding. Straw finely
cut is the best. We make ready to place
the sow in her quarters two or three
weeks before farrowing. We then begin
the very careful feeding and slopping.
Grant Co. Lin Wilson.
The yards, for the flrst thing, should
not be too large for fattening hogs, as
they do not need to exercise so much
when fattening. Stock hogs should have
plenty of room. My stock hogs range ln
the woods pasture in the winter, and in
the clover field in the snmmer.
Hog buildings should be comfortable at
as little expense as'possible. Their sleeping quarters should be so as to break tbe
nortn and east winds, as they are the
most disagreeable. As to the bedding, I
always prefer leaves for bedding I read
Mr. Hart's piece on hog beds. He says
oorn cobs make good bedding, but I think
if he would try such a bed himself he
would' change his mind. Hts plan of
burning the cobs I think is excellent for
the hogr. '         *-'    —
You say nothing about stopping
troughs, and no feeding pen is complete
without troughs. They shonld be fastened to the floor so the hogs cannot over
turn them. The trough should have a
spout, or shoot, from the outside of the
pen.. Then slopping is an easy jjb.
Corydon. Elf.
review.
Should first premium have been given
to Mr. Templeton? What do yon think of
a hog house large enough for a herd?
Mr. T.'s plan is good, but the house is
rather costly, and reminds me of a discussion on bee houses, at the North American Bee Association. Some one read a paper on bee houses. A prominent and successful bee-keeper, a Butch honey merchant in Cincinnati eald.*"De pee-house
may pee a goot ting Boot I hab hot tons of
hooney in meschtore,undt I niver yit got
a car loat from alny mahn vwat keep his
pees in a pee house all retty." Theoretically^ bee-house and a hog-house are a success. But practically I have never known
"ainy mahn" to grow hogs by the car load
who had a single, costly hog-house for the
whole herd. Many of our breeders build
small, separate houses or sheds. Often
movable with movable yard fences. I
may be peculiar, but I think costly, permanent hog-houses are like brick and
stone hospitals—they get infested and
old. Hospitals are now bnilt cheaply, so
as to be torn away every few years. A
surgeon will not perform a serious operation in any hospital, for fear of disease
germs. I believe I have 10 or 12 little
houses, some of them 8 by 12 feet, built in
the place of a double pannel of rail fence;
some are smaller and movable. My larger
permanent sheds are only nsed when the
field they are in is in pasture, which is
one year in three. I don't like a system
of hog raising that tends to keep the hogs
using abont one place too much. That
may do for cattle. Hogs should be scattered, separated in small groups and
changed occasionally.
I know several breeders who have
rather inexpensive houses, arranged with
bins and cellar to keep feed, and even
boil it. Bnt their sleeping apartments
are scattered in little lots about it. We
sometimes put a lot of fresh straw in one
of these cheap little houses and burn it.
It fills it so fall of fire that one would
all burnnp. After the flash, one can disinfect the ground, or move the house and
put in new clean straw. .
Let me call attention to Mr. Hart's
series of articles in the swine department.
His house does not bring the roof eaves
down to the floor, as Mr. G.'s does. Mr.
Hart makes the eave sides 18 inches high.
This makes the house much more roomy,
especially for large sows. And they will
not lie down close to the wall either.
Why. do Mr. Williams and others slope
the roof one way? Let it make both roof
and siding. Mr. Williams ' roofs with
shingles. Wouldn't pine plank be as
cheap, especially if they made both roof
and siding? Again, a hog-house, like a
hospital, should be as plain as possible,
to not harbor germs.
Mr. Elf wouldn't like to lie ou Mr.
Hart's cob bed. That was what I thought
when Mr. H. said he used cobs. But on
seeing his hog beds I noticed that the cobs
were much crushed by the sheller, and
made a good open, dry cool bed.
Nature's bed for hogs ls the ground,
covered with leaves. I may be wrong
when I doubt tbe plank floor being any
improvement We sometimes lay a floor
to feed on it in muddy weather, but never
in the sleeping house.
Nothing has been said about saving
manure by cement or plank floors. Of
course, no manure is ever found in the
sleeping shed; a floor is not needed there
for that purpose.
One argument in favor of an apartment
house is in saving of the manure. I have
seen such houses, and the owner of one
told me, he cleans his every day, yet it
was filthy and sour and strong when we
walked through it. Hog manure is very
good when the hogs are fed high as they
usually are. In the summer, say nine
months, our hog manure is mostly dropped on the pastures. In the winter months
much of it is wasted. Some of our winter
lots, however, are for pasture or cultivation and are helped by it. I suppose one
could arrange so that most of his pig lots
would be cultivated or allowed to grow
trass. We have now three bunches of
ogs following three bunches of cattle, on
three places. Every thing sleeps in good
beds in some building; and we are making it a rule, more than ever before, to
feed all that the growing animals will eat
clean, but we try to make it a balanced up
ration.
No. 53, Maroh 13 Hog raising No. 2.
Choice of stock, not choice of breeds, but
appearanoe of individual parents. Treatment of both before mating, and of sow
during pregnancy and farrowing.
No, &_, March 20. Hog raising No. 3.
Care and feed of sow and pigs after farrowing. Also exercise. What should
pigs weigh at 60 days; at 270 days?
No. 55, March 27. Hog cholera and
other fatal diseases. The sanitation of
hog raising.
No.56,April6. Fertilizers. Wherecan
commercial fertilizers be economically
used and how?
No. 57, April 10. The best fence post and
how to preserve it.
No. 58, April 17. Best material for roofing. Experience in painting roofs. Material.
No. 59, April 24. Renovating an old orchard.
No. 60, May 1. Mistakes and failures of
recent years.
Ih writing don't fall to note new points
not generally known; also other points
of real experience. Address all copy 10
days before publication.
Let our subscribers write their experience. The purpose of the department is
not exaustive articles but brief, pithy,
Eractical experiences.  A sort of heart to
eart talk, suoh  as  you  enjoy with  a
neighbor.
I Read onr excellent articles on this subject. We were favored with some 30 letters. Those we are able to publish contain most of the points made. Address all
copy to E. H. Collins.
Carmel.
<$\XZXXl KUtX &USXOZX.
How muoh seed field peas and oats ar»
required to sow an acre for best results?
Also in what proportion should they be
sown? O M. M.
Aalia.
Sow 1% bushels of each to the acre,
abont equally divided, and sow in early
spring. 	
A subscriber asks for information about
the Vineless sweet potato, whether it
succeeds here, and whether there are several varieties under this name.
We raised a few of them along with
other kinds last summer, but cannot recommend them above the Nansemond,
either in yield or quality. There are two
or more varieties of the vineless sweet
potato we nnderstand. We hope that
several of those who have tried them will
report, as many readers are interested.
Report briefly on postal cards, please.
How to Apply Fertilizers.
Editobs Indiaka Fabmib:
■ Commercial fertilizers can be economically used on np lands in Washington
county, by exercising good jadginent in
carefully selecting such material as best
intended. Fertilizers shonld be applied,
nnder the surface of the ground,to insure
dampness, at a depth most accessible for
tbe rootlets to appropriate a sufficient
amount as plant food. R. M,
Salem.
%nw Qc pnxtmznX.
Elmer E. Stevenson, attorney, Indianapolis.
The pure food bill is so just and reasonable a measure that we confidently expected it to pass, but it seems the wholesale dealers objected to it, and for that
reason it was left to sleep in the hands of
the House committee on rights and privileges.
How must I understand the fence law
in this State? If my neighbor wants a
partition fence, will it be compulsory on
my part to build half, or would it release
me if I did not want it or need it?
A. D.
The laws of Indiana would seem to require you to erect or contribute to the
erection of and to maintain one-half the
partition fence.
Please answer the following in your
law column: A gives B notes secured by
mortgage, so specified in mortgage. B
loses some of the notes. In what way
can B protect A from paying notes the
second time, if they should be found
after payment is made?
Colfax. A Subscriber.
The only entirely safe way-would be to
take from B an indemnifying bond covering the amount of the lost notes and
any possible expense to which A might
be put.
A owns the north half and B owns the
south half of the same quarter section. A
has huilt the east 80 roas and 11 the west
80 rods of tbe division fence. A has two
sons, C and D. A dies and leaves the east
40 to C and the west 40 to D. Now must
C always keep up the east 80 rods of the
division fence and D keep up none?
T.C.
A statute of Indiana provides that,
"Partition fences dividing lands occupied
on both sides, except waste lands and nn-
inclosed woodland, shall be maintained
throughout the year equally by the
owners or occupants of said lands."
Under this statute C and D wonld each
be required to maintain one-half of the
fence between their lands respectively
and the land of B.
A and B have a line fenceor a partition
fence. It Is a hedge fence. A claims he
set it out 45 or 50 years ago, and it was
supposed to be on the line. Said fence
has never been cut or trimmed. B wants
to cut half of the fence to get the posts
and to keep the shade from 2 or 3 rods
from the grain, and A says he can't cnt it
or his half. Please answer, if not too
much trouble.
Carroll Co. A. B. W.
A cannot legally maintain a fence that
is a nuisance. After notifying A to reduce his fence to such proportions that it
will not shade the ground of B, B can cnt
off such limbs as overhang his land,
throwing them on A's ground, if A refuses to trim the fence. Or B may bring
suit against A for maintaining a nuisance.
There seems to be no right by which B
could cut the hedge fence simply to get
the posts.
Our Experience Department.
Enrross Indiana Fabmib:
I want to congratulate you on yonr experience department. It is a great success. Virginia C. Meredith.
Cambridge City.
EDrroBS Indiana Fabmeb:
The experience department is the best
thing I ever saw in any agricultural paper. L. P. R.
Mt. Sterling.
Our Endeared Paper.
Editohs Indiana Fabmeb:
Our endeared paper, the Indiana
Farmer. I like it ever so much and cannot afford to do withont it at all.
Madison Co. •.. D. W. T.
Joseph Sherman, 76 years old, of Carroll
county, while at Burrows, getting a prescription filled for an invalid wife was
struck by a train and killed.
 ^~	
In California the strawberry plants are
now in bloom, and the berries will be in
season from January till September.