VOL. XXIII.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND., SATURDAY, OCT, 27,1888.
NO. 43
PAEM STOOK BUILDINGS.
Plan for a Hog House, Designed at the
Wisconsin Experiment Station.
BY L    H. ADAMS.
[Fifth Annual Report of Station.]
In planning and providing comfortable
farm buildings, the swine department is
usually the last to receive attention, and
yet it is conceded that light, ventilation,
warmth and cleanliness are just ss necessary in swine husbandry as they are in
the dairy stable. Three years ago, a hog
house waa built on the Experimental
Farm, which embodied our ideas of the
best structure for the purpose at that time;
although it has
proved reasonably
satisfactory and has
excited much favorable comment from
many of our numerous visitors, experience has shown us
where it could be improved at several
points. Numerous
requestshavingcome
to the Station for a
plan of our building,
the opportunity is
t*_*.*9ii  to^ieply -■;..,      	
through this report,
but instead of illustrating and describing what we have, it
seems wiser to give a
plan and descriptions
of such building a*
we would erect wer,
we tc start anew and
build again.
It will be borne in
mind that this hog
house is arranged especially for  feeding
experiments; the practical breeder and
feeder can introduce such modifications as
will meet his needs. By referring to
the ground plan it will be seen that the
dimensions of the building are 70x24 feet
outside measurement, with 16 foot studding. It bhould be placed with its great
est length east and west, with sleeping
rooms and  yards  on the  south  -side for
Bleeping room.   This partition also serves
to support the joists for the upper floor.
It will be observed that no mora spaco
is given up to the feeding rooms than is
absolutely necessary, as the hogs are
driven back into the sleeping rooms after
each meal throngh small doors (designated
by dotted lines in cut No. 2) that slide up
and down in grooves and are operated
from the feeding alley by means of ropes
that run'over two small pulleys screwed
into the ceiling. A large entrance to eabh
of the sleeping rooms from the feed rooms
is also provided, so that an attendant may
enter any pen without disturbing the occupant of the adjoining ones. The partitions that separate the feeding rooms
from each other are three feet high. A
series of  doors, three  feet wide, through
ing to within three feet of the roof (see cut
No. 1). From this point the foul air escapes through a ventilator on the top of
the building; the draught is regulated by
means of a sliding door at the bottom of
each shaft. By making openings into
these chutes in the upper story, an excellent means of distributing bedding to any
sleeping room, is provided. Sunlight enters the sleeping apartments through windows four feet wide and two feet high.
"We now come to another important feature of the building that must be considered in connection with the sleeping
rooms, for they should always be together;
I refer to the series of yards on the south
side of the building. Each pen has a yard
in connection with it that reaches back 2
sixteen feet.   Constant access to this yard I light,
that the foundation, floor and roof of a
structure are the expensive portions, and
as storage capacity is always in great demand on the farm, why build a one-story
hoe house when a little more outlay for
boards and studding, gives such a large
upper room for bedding, or if not wanted
for that, it will be an excellent place for
storing farm tools away for the winter,
plows, harrows, cultivators, and those
tools that are only used for a short time
in the summer.
To sum up, the features of this building
which we wish to emphasize, are:
1. The manner of separating the feeding and sleeping rooms, which insures a
clean dry place to feed.
2    The  facilities   for  ventilation  and
3. The system of
yards by which the
sleeping rooms are
kept clean and the
hogs permitted to
have exercise at will.
4. The details of
the interior arrangements such as the
width of pens, disposition of doors, etc.,
may be varied to
meet the requirements of the builder.
FIG. 1.—HOG   HOUSE.
each division, a fiord a satisfactory means 1
of handling the hogs, either on the scales,
or when 1- ading them into wagons at the
opposite end of the building.
A very convenient device for keeping
the hogs back from the trough when pouring in swill (see cut No. 3), needs only to
be seen to be understood and appreciated.
It is a simple door hung over the center of
Is had by means of a small door that is left
open all the time, unless the weather is
very cold, so that all droppings may be
deposited outside of the building; this
will be done if the yard is not allowed to
become clogged up with litter and filth.
The outside fence of this yard is made
permanent, with a substantial gate hinge
at each end (see cut  No. 1),  the division
A Bid WiXDMir.i..
—One of the largest
wind motors in existence is used for
driving flouring machinery at Great Yarmouth, England. It
has four sails, which
are 40 feet 9 inches
long by 12 feet 6
inches wide, and ex-
  _ tend  100 feet   from
■"*....'■ ' point to point. With
'r"*~-- a wind of 25 miles ah
hour the windmill
has 55 horse poweri
and will easily make 120 barrels of flour
In 24 hours. The building containing the
flouring apparatus and supporting the
motor is of 11 stories, stands 09 feet above
the foundation, and is 35 feet in diameter
at the base and 16 at the top.
+ UL
^
0 UGli -f---=-=- -Ji-^*--i*--.
CDINC
OOM'
"Feedinc /^lley.
Hinged
FIG. 2.—GROUND PLAN OF HOG HOUSE.
Ki-QOR
■SECTIOti
sunshine and warmth. At one end of the
building a weighing and store room is entered through a door sufficiently wide to
admit a swill cart, this room is 1334x24
feet, and is provided with a chimney and
all the facilities for heating water, weighing hogs, etc. A feeding alley four feet
wide leaves this room and extends the entire length on the north side of the building. In the plan as here given, there are
seven pens, each seven feet nine inches
wide in the clear; a tight partition reaching to the ceiling, 6 feet 11 inches back
from the feeding alley divides these pens
the trough that swings and catches on
either side of it by means of a wooden bar
that raises up and down through iron
staples. A 4x4 is sufficiently strong to
support these doors; in the cut it is represented as 4x6 through mistake.
We now come to the sleeping roouas and
as these are where the hogs spend most of
their time it is important that they receive careful attention. These rooms are
eleven feet five inches by seven feet nine
inches, inside measurement, and occupy
the south portion of the buildlBg. Each
room  is  ventilated by means of . a shaft
into  two   apartments, the feeding and two feet square, that reaches from the cell-
fences are made so that a ten foot panel
may be lifted out to allow a wagon to pass
through and gather up the manure. It is
not advisable to have these yards reach
back more than sixteen feet on account of
the extra work in keeping them clean and
gathering up the manure.
Mr. Theodore Louis, a prominent and
successful swine breeder of this State, has
suggested that these yards be floored with
plank laid in water lime, in |order to keep
out vermin and reduce the loss of manure
to the minimum.
Now a word about  the height of the
Fio. 3 —Cross section of Feeding Trough
At New York last Tuesday among the
immigrant arrivals was a party of destitute men and women who had been sent
over here by the Duka of Buckingham,
England. Work was slack on the other
side, and the Duke was appealed to with
the above result. Some were sick and
none had money, so the whole party was
returned to his Grace on Saturday with
Collector Magone's compliments.
A boy named Smith, of  Oak Hill, near
Peoria, was thrown from a horse, and his
foot catching   in the   stirrup   he   was
building; our farmers are coming to learn dragged along the road-way and killed.