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Streeter, John Williams

"The Fat of the Land The Story of an American Farm"

I therefore gave the order to
Nelson to build another swine-house as soon as spring opened. My plan
was, and I carried it out, to move all the colonies every three months,
and to have the vacant house thoroughly cleaned, sprayed with a powerful
germicide, and whitewashed. The runs were to be turned over, when the
weather would permit, and the ground sown to oats or rye.
The new house was finished in June, and the pigs were moved into it on
July 1st with a lease of three months. My mind has been easy on the
question of the health of my hogs ever since; and with reason, for there
has been no epizooetic or other serious form of disease in my piggery, in
spite of the fact that there are often more than 1200 pigs of all
degrees crowded into this five-acre lot. The two pig-houses and the
brood-house, with their runs, cover the whole of the lot, except the
broad street of sixty feet just inside my high quarantine fence, which
encloses the whole of it.


CHAPTER LIV
BACON AND EGGS

Each hog turned out from my piggery weighing 270 pounds or more, has
eaten of my substance not less than 500 pounds of grain, 250 pounds of
chopped alfalfa, 250 pounds of roots or vegetables, and such quantities
of skimmed milk and swill as have fallen to his share.


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