Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1877-05-25

the whole hoggish world lift up their
hands in amazement at this seeming
interposition of Divine Providence,
and gravcly ask our State authorities
to come to their rescue, if not aid.
Another very fruitful source of
this disease is the indiscriminate
mixture of swine of all ages under
one roof. Here is greed again. All
want just few pigs more; and as
late pigs are much more easily count
ed in the beginning OF winter than
early pigs, the tendency has recently
been to breed so as to have a good
many. Now pigs are sometimes
like babies, and are not fitted to
withstand the rigors of our northern
winters. In order to keep warm
they have way of OVERLAPPING one
another, and what are not smothered
outright are obliged to respirc the
same atmosphere that they themselves
and their fellows have just exhal-
ed. Here crowd poison is generated
with vengeance, and these weak
lings are the first to feel its effects.
Everybody with any experience
knows how much more difficult it is
to winter late pigs than early ones,
and yet, for the sake of numbers ,
they are bred late in the season.
One early pig is worth very much
more than two late ones, and there
is not 1.-THE of the danger in VIM
tering them by disease.
Pig sites, as they are now con-
structed, are but little better than
the black hole OF Calcutta or the
square hole of Kondon, and are not
unfrequently neither oblong nor
square-four huge logs rolled to-
gether, with an aperture for entrance,
and rooted over with all manner of
rubbish, as tight as jug; and in
this atmosphere they are compelled
to sleep, with every available inch
filled up with their fellow hogs.
Now, 800 cubic feet of air space is
supposed to be the least allowance
Of air for pauper establishment. 1t
is true, there is no door to Mr.. Pigs
bedroom, otherwise they would find
a back INSTRUMENTATION requires
an exit for the foul atmoshere, just
as much as an inlet tor fresh air;
and were our pig sites constructed in
proper proportions to the number we
wish to keep, with true system of
ventilation, this disease would have
forever remained unknown.
Another equally dangerous place
for sleeping is the basement OF an
outbuilding. Here, with just room
enough to crawl under, disease is
bred with the greatest facility.
Obliging them to sleep about straw
and hay stacks is liable to much dan
gor, as they or cattle will dig holes
into the stack, and in cold weather
they will pile up at the risk OF their
lives. Another very unsafe place is
an open shed, which every one will
say must be well ventilated. Moth
ing is less true in fact. To keep
warm in such place, they resort to
the same habit Of everything one an
other, and disease is thereby engen-
dered. The hog, being a thick-skinn-
ed animal, is more susceptible to
heat and cold, than any OF our do
nestle animals. In summer, for
want of shade, in winter to guard
against cold, they are most liable to
sly fever. The more continuous the
heat the greater the danger; and the
same with the cold Of the rigid win
ter. The winter just past has been
an extremely dangerous one for late
pigs; and these in their turn have
communicated this disease to the old
er ones, so that the mortality has
been frightful.