The house
stood on a platform or bed of cement 90 by 200 feet, which formed the
floor of the house and extended 20 feet outside of each wall, to secure
cleanliness and a dry feeding-place in the open. The cement floor was
expensive ($1120 as first cost), but I think it has paid for itself
several times over in health and comfort to the herd. The structure on
this floor was of the simplest; a double wall only five feet high at the
sides, shingled roof, broken at the ridge to admit windows, and strong
partitions. It cost $3100. As in the brood-sow house, there is a kitchen
at the west end. The 150 little pigs made but a small showing in this
great house, which was intended to shelter six hundred of all sizes,
from the eight-weeks-old baby pig to the nine-months-old
three-hundred-pounder ready for market.
Pigs destined for market never leave this house until ripe for killing.
At six or seven months a few are chosen to remain on the farm and keep
up its traditions; but the great number live their ephemeral lives of
eight months luxuriously, even opulently, until they have made the ham
and bacon which, poor things, they cannot save, and then pass into the
pork barrel or the smoke-house without a sigh of regret.
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