The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1897-06-19
FARMER AND PLANTER.
SWINE RAISING.

What Precautions Should be Taken to
Keep Herd Healthy.
Paper read at the meeting of the Kentucky
Swine Breeders association at Bowling Green,
April IL, 1897, by j. L. Lisle.l a
One of the first and most important
things toward keeping herd healthy
Is to have good, clean, airy, comforta-
bic quarters, well ventilated and with
plenty of sunshine. Hogs frequently,
like men, manage to live under the
most adverse circumstances, but if you
wish to ward off disease care must be
exercised at all times to keep their
sleeping quarters free from dust.
Many hogs die annually from pneu-
monia and other diseases of the
lungs, but the cause is generally
attributed to cholera or swine
plague. Hogs that are compelled to
sleep in dusty beds, and every time
they breath take into their lungs more
or less dust, can not thrive. We notice
ths quicker in young pigs where the
SOW Is allowed to have her bed around
an old straw stack. consider dust
one OF the worst enemies that young
pigs have to contend with. Their
bed should be removed once or twice
week, and each time sprinkle little
disinfectant over it. Air-slacked lime,
crude carbolic acid and sulphuric acid
are all good and cheap disinfectants.
The best breeders seem to differ in
their opinion as to what make the
best floors and bedding. l have
a xx,A
permanent the most satisfactory
doors to me have been good, we'll
packed clay. In the fall dig up and
haul out about six inches of the old
hoor and fill in with fresh clay and
pack well. Where the houses are NOV
able this is not necessary. And for
bedding, have used this past winter
shredded fodder with the greatest sat
asfaction. Sunshine is almost impor-
tant us good air. The houses or stalls
should face the south, and have a win
dow, II possible, and If not, then SO
that the doors can be left open for the
sun to shine in.
The next thing in Importance to good
quarters is good, pure water. With
the human family many diseases are
directly traceable to the use of impure
water. 1t does not follow by any
means that because supply of water
is from spring, that it is pure and
free from various microbes. Our best
physicians tell us that there is no pre-
ventiye equally as effective asdrinking
pure filtered cistern water. ! am SO
thoroughly convinced of the impor-
lance OF good, pure water, that while l
have on my place one of the best
springs in Kentucky, hope soon to
have all OF my lots supplied with els
tern water only. Is it strange that
many hogs die annually when they are
compelled to wallow in and drink the |
vilest OF water? Some people seem to
think that water is all right for a
hog II it is only wet.
In this day of cheap petroleum it |
seems to me to be almost criminal in a |
man to allow his hogs to be loaded |
down with lice. Lice always seem to
me to be'a forerunner of disease. They !
seem to thrive best on sick hog, or it |
may be that hog can not thrive and |
the lice Also have found nothing so |
effective against this pest as crude |
petroleum, with little crude carbolic |
acid added; A regular application of
this once week is sure death to lice.
Every man must be his own Judge as /
to what is best for him to feed. What |
is most available and cheapest in one
section of the country may be entire
ly too expensive in another section.
But there are some things that are
available to all and are at all times
necessary. Salt, charcoal, wood ashes
and slack coal should be kept where
the hogs can go to it as they want. l
have seen some farmers who thought
1t never necessary to salt their hogs
Whatever may be the principal food
used change of diet occasionally is
very beneficial and will whet up their
appetites.
In this latitude there is no reason
why we should not always have some
thing green for our hogs. They are
by nature grazers, and nothing so regu-
lates the bowels and is relished bv
them as fresh pasture of clover, blue
grass or rye.
A mistake that is probably made by
more people than any other one is that
OF overcrowding. Many a person hay
ing done well with one or two sows.
figures it out on paper that he can do
equally as well with ten or twenty, and
stocks up his place with
= large number of hogs Nine times
out of ten he only sends out and allur-
ing invitation to disease and disease
comes. Hogs will not stand too much !
crowding, nor do l believe that the
same lots ought TO be used year after
year without blowing. Nothing SO puri- {
lies the ground like blowing. Give them ,
change of pasture; pillow the old lots |
and let the cultivation, the rain and ,
sunshine thoroughly disinfect them.
Always have some grazing for your 1
hogs; don't let more than Is or 90 be in | ,