Few items conduce more to the thriving and well-being of swine than
airy, spacious, well-constructed styes, and above all, cleanliness.
They were formerly too often housed in damp, dirty, close, and
imperfectly-built sheds, which was a fruitful source of disease and of
unthrifty animals. Any place was once thought good enough to keep a pig
in.
In large establishments, where numerous pigs are kept, there should be
divisions appropriated to all the different kinds; the boars, the
breeding sows, the newly weaned, and the fattening pigs should all be
kept separate; and in the divisions assigned to the second and last of
these classes, it is best to have a distinct apartment for each animal,
all opening into a yard or inclosure of limited extent. As pigs require
warmth, these buildings should face the south, and be kept weather-tight
and well drained. Good ventilation is also important; for it is idle to
expect animals to make good flesh and retain their health, unless they
have a sufficiency of pure air. The blood requires this to give it
vitality and free it from impurities, as much as the stomach requires
wholesome and strengthening food; and when it does not have it, it
becomes vitiated, and impairs all the animal functions. Bad smells and
exhalations, moreover, injure the flavor of the meat.
Damp and cold floors should be guarded against, as they tend to induce
cramp and diarrh[oe]a; and the roof should be so contrived as to carry
off the wet from the pigs. The walls of a well-constructed sty should be
of solid masonry; the roof sloping, and furnished with spouts to carry
off the rain; the floors either slightly inclined toward a gutter made
to carry off the rain, or else raised from the ground on beams or
joists, and perforated so that all urine and moisture shall drain off.
Bricks and tiles, sometimes used for flooring, are objectionable,
because, however well covered with straw, they still strike cold. Wood
is far superior in this respect, as well as because it admits of those
clefts or perforations being made, which serve not only to drain off all
moisture, but also to admit fresh air.
The manure proceeding from the pig-sty has often been much undervalued,
and for this reason, that the litter is supposed to form the principal
portion of it; whereas it constitutes the least valuable part, and,
indeed, it can scarcely be regarded as manure at all--at least by
itself--where the requisite attention is paid to the cleanliness of the
animals and of their dwellings. The urine and the dung are valuable,
being, from the very nature of the food of the animals, exceedingly rich
and oleaginous, and materially beneficial to cold soils and grass-lands.
The manure from the sty should always be collected as carefully as that
from the stable or cow-house, and husbanded in the same way.
The door of each sty ought to be so hung that it will open inward or
outward, so as to give the animals free ingress and egress. For this
purpose, it should be hung across from side to side, and the animal can
push it up to effect its entry or exit; for, if it were hung in the
ordinary way, it would derange the litter every time it opened inward,
and be very liable to hitch. If it is not intended that the pigs shall
leave their sty, there should be an upper and lower door; the former of
which should always be left open when the weather is warm and dry, while
the latter will serve to confine the animal. There should likewise be
windows or slides, which can be opened or closed at will, to give
admission to the fresh air, or exclude rain or cold.
Wherever it can be managed, the troughs--which should be of stone or
cast metal, since wooden ones will soon be gnawed to pieces--should be
so situated that they can be filled and cleaned from the outside,
without interfering with or disturbing the animals at all; and for this
purpose it is well to have a flap, or door, with swinging hinges, made
to hang horizontally on the trough, so that it can be moved to and fro,
and alternately be fastened by a bolt to the inside or outside of the
manger. When the hogs have fed sufficiently, the door is swung inward
and fastened, and so remains until feeding-time, when the trough is
cleansed and refilled without any trouble, and then the flap drawn back,
and the animals admitted to their food. Some cover the trough with a lid
having as many holes in it as there are pigs to eat from it, which gives
each pig an opportunity of selecting his own hole, and eating away
without interfering with or incommoding his neighbor.
A hog ought to have three apartments, one each for sleeping, eating, and
evacuations; of which the last may occupy the lowest, and the first the
highest level, so that nothing shall be drained, and as little carried
into the first two as possible. The piggery should always be built as
near as possible to that portion of the establishment from which the
chief part of the provision is to come, since much labor will thus be
saved. Washings, and combings, and brushings, as has been previously
suggested, are valuable adjuncts in the treatment of swine; the energies
of the skin are thus roused, the pores opened, the healthful functions
aided, and that inertness, so likely to be engendered by the lazy life
of a fattening pig, counteracted.
A supply of fresh water is essential to the well-being of swine, and
should be freely furnished. If a stream can be brought through the
piggery, it answers better than any thing else. Swine are dirty feeders
and dirty drinkers, usually plunging their fore-feet into the trough or
pail, and thus polluting with mud or dirt whatever may be given to them.
One of the advantages, therefore, to be derived from the stream of
running water is, its being kept constantly clean and wholesome by its
running. If this advantage cannot be procured, it is desirable to
present water in vessels of a size to receive but one head at a time,
and of such height as to render it impossible, or difficult, for the
drinker to get his feet into it. The water should be renewed twice
daily. If swine are closely confined in pens, they should have as much
charcoal twice a week as they will eat, for the purpose of correcting
any tendency to disorders of the stomach. Rotten wood is an imperfect
substitute for charcoal.