AN EXCELLENnffifi!Ofi&£>c><><~'w*^^
Plan Used at the  University  of Illinois
Agricultural Experiment Station.
The cuts shown on this page are, by
courtesy, made from the photos used for
illustrations given in bulletin 109, just issued by the University of Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station. They show
the ground plan and elevation of an excellent hog house, fully explained in the
bulletin, from which we quote in part
As to location and surroundings the bulletin says:
"The best location for a hog house,
therefore, is one that is well drained ami
well lighted, and one that will permit access to pasture, to good shade and to a
stream of running water that is free from
disease germs, where also there are opportunities for making wallows in clean
mud.
"If the building can be placed on a
sandy or gravelly soil it will afford better
drainage than a clay, silt, or peaty soil
would furnish. Light and shade are desirable for reasons that are apparent to
everyone. Pasture should be accessible
as considerable food is obtained from the
soil in the form of roots, worms and insects, as well as many materials that are
not foods, but are necessary to the health
of the pigs. A limestone soil is preferable because the water from such a soil as
well as the soil and stone themselves, fur-
n:su the lime that is so essential in building up bone. A rolling pasture is preferable because it furnishes better drainage and a form of exercise that is conducive to the production of a large percentage
of lean meat. It also tends to produce
strong legs with upright pasterns, which,
from the breeder's standpoint, are among
the first essentials of a good hog.
A stream of pure running water is desirable, for then drinking water in the
best form will be available at all times
and will be more wholesome than it would
be were it supplied in a trough where it is
bn/tind to become more or less warm, stagnant and foul. If there is no natural
stream at hand water pumped from a well
by a windmill or other motive power will
supply the need. A clean mud wallow is
enjoyed more by swine in the summer time
than auy one other condition that may be
furnished them. It keeps them cool, destroys lice and keeps the skin in a good
healthy condition."
— Plan and Cost of Construction. —
The ground plan of the hog house
which is shown is 120 feet long by 30 feet
wide and is represented in the Figures
by O, S, T, U. X, Y is the alley which
runs lengthwise througb the middle of the
building and ia 8 feet wide. This permits of driving through the building with
a wagon, which allows the feed and bedding to be hauled in where it is needed
ond the manure to be loaded on the wagon
directly from the pens and hauled to the
fields.
The doors at either end of the building
and one across the alley shutting off the
pigs from the rest of the building are
shown by R. The pens A are 10 feet
wide and 11 feet deep. Each pen has a
doorway M leading to the outside which is
opened by a door sliding upwards. There
is also a door N opening to the alley on the
inside. Thia door is hung so that when
it is open it will turn the pigs tioward
the front end of the house where they are
to be weighed. It also permits of
changing pigs from one pen to any other
pen aud of easy access for the attendant.
L represents the trough which is placed on
the pen next to the alley and
which with the arrangement of a swinging panel above this trough as is shown
* * * makes feeding a very easy and
convenient   operation. The   fender   in
the pen is shown by K * * *. This
consists of a 2-inch tubular iron bar placed on iron posts of the same dimension
and set in concrete in the floor. This
bar is placed 8 or 9 inches above the floor
and sbout 6 inches from tbe wall and is
to prevent the sows crushing the pigs at
farrowing time. The sow will necessarily make her bed in this corner as the
other three corners are occupied, two of
which have doors and the other feed
troughs.
D, shows the platform scale on which
the outer end opening to the lane which
leads to the pastures. The partitions between these pens on the outside are made
of two lengths of common fencing, one 16
feet and the other 12 feet long. The 12-
fcot length is next to the building and
may be made into a gate so that it will
swing. By opening all these gates by-
swinging them one way, and away from
the building, an alley is made along tbe
outside of the building in case it is not desirable to use the alley in the building for
taking out the manure. But this is not so
convenient as driving through the alley on
the inside.
There is a 4-inch drain tile laid from
each pen in the building to the main lines
on either side, which    are placed    on the
Hog House, from the Illinois Experiment Station.
the pigs are to be weighed as desired. This
scale is fitted with a frame and the door
on the side next to the alley shown at Q,
opens so that when the pigs come down
the alley, it will facilitate turning them
upon the scales. At the other end of
the scale platform is a smaller door in the
frame which opens through a door P, of
the building, thus allowing the pigs to
pass from the scale room directly to the
outside where there may be a loading
chute leading to a  wagon.
F is the feed-mixing-room in which are
/eed bins for feeds of various kinds represented by I. There is also a door, J.
leading to the outside from this room.
H shows the hydrant from which water
is obtained for mixing slops, watering
hogs, and for attaching the hose to sprinkle the floors. E shows the stove that is
used for heating water in winter for mixing slops.
G shows the offlce, and C the feed bins
in which the feed is stored as it is hauled
to the hog house. The opening of these
feed bins is from the main alley of the hog
house from which they are filled directly
from the wagon as the feed is brought in.
The feed is then taken ont in smaller
quantities as needed and put into the
small bins in the feed-mixing-room from
which it is weighed out to the pigs at feeding time.
B showa an alley which leads through
the door, T. to the yard V on the outside.
Opposite this is the yard Z. These two
yards are not connected with pens on the
inside of the building but are used as boar
pens and are supplied with separate cots
nnd feed troughs on the outside shown in
the cnt as A are of the same width as the
pena inside and are 28 feet long. They
are connected with the pens on the inside
by means of the doors above mentioned,
outside of the pens, leading off down the
ravine. The tile opens up through the
floor of the pen by means of a perforated
iron disk which is laid in the bell end of a
length of sewer pipe. The floor is made
to slope toward the drain so that it can
be flushed with water.
The bulletin states that the doors from
the alley way and the partitions dividing
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Ground  Plan.
of the floors are made of hard brick, laid
on the side in the pens, and on the edge
in the alley, and the balance are laid in
cement. The bulletin states that the cost
of the hog house was as follows:
Foundation, tile drain, floor and chimney..9640.25
Lumber   aud   windows 630.70
Iron posts,  gates,  panels aud fenders  244.90
Hardware     63.86
Paint  and   painting   (two  coats)     64.00
Labor (carpenter) 290.00
Tar-and-gravel roof     79.16
Scales 100.00
$2110.66
The  size  of the house can  readily  be
changed to suit any farmer's herd.
the pens are made of wire, so that the
sews can see eaeh other and the attendant
and what is going on, and thus will not
be disturbed to nny great extent, as they
would be with tight board doors and partitions when feeding was procediug. Part
A BARE PACED SWINDLE.
A few weeks ago a set of sharpers, under the name of the Vineless Potato Company, of Chicago, sent out circulars to
the farmers telling them of wonderful pro-
tits that could be made with a preparation
they sold called "potatoine," price only
$-1.50 a bottle, from which they said "as
many potatoes could be raised in a bin
ten feet wide and 100 feet long in 00 days
as in an acre in an entire season. The
right to use the system was marketed by
the company at $25 a season. Figuring
out that they could, under the promise
beld forth, raise potatoes for 3 cents a
bushel and sell them for OOc a great many
fanners, whose backs were tired from the
old fashioned way of raising potatoes, began to nibble at the alluring bait. Of
course they complained to the Postofflce
Department when they discovered that
they had been duped."
Any farmer that would bite at such
bait as that deserves to be swindled; or
rather perhaps we should say he ought to
be sent to the Insane asylum. He is
not fit to care for himself.
ONE PERSON IN EVERY  56 IS  AN OB-
JECr OP CHARITY IN INDIANA:
From a carefully prepared paper on
Poor Relief in Indiana, by Amos W. Butler, Secretary of our State Board of
Charities, published in the American Journal of Socialogy, May number, ""we find
this interesting statement regarding the
number of persons aided by public charity
in proportion to population, in different
years:
"In former years there was no means of
collecting such statistics, but the law of
1S95 filled that need. As mentioned above,
the first set of reports under that law was
for 1890 and indicated a total of 71,414
persons aided. Because of their incompleteness, these reports were not satisfactory. The number reported for 1897
was 82,235. This was equal to 3.2 per
cent of the population of the state (2,516,-
462 by the census of 1900), or one in
every thirty-one inhabitants. In 1898 the
number was reduced to 75,119, and in
1899 to 64,468. From that year to 1905,
inclusive the number helped annually av-
eiaged 46,561. . In 1905 the number reported as receiving the aid given was 45,-
331. This was equal to 1.8 per cent of
the population of the state, or one in
every fifty-six inhabitants."
lt is very evident that a moTe careful
and systematic method of distributing the
charities of the State has been adopted,
end vast sums are being saved to the taxpayers thereby.
This is bound to De a year of plenty
in this country, and we must not look for
high prices for crops, unless it be oats and
hay, these are generally short. Besides
tne grains our fruits ar^ in good supply,
apples and peaches especially.