The farmstead: The making of the rural home and the lay-out of the farm / (5th edition)

by Isaac Phillips Roberts

PIGGERIES

Fig. 126. Temporary shelter for a brood sow.

A piggery of any considerable size is the most difficult to plan of all farm structures. One of two methods may be adopted in the East with fairly satisfactory results. If there are woods and some pasture land adjoining or near to the barns, cheap separate pens ([Fig. 126]), one for each brood animal, may be built near the border of the wood or on the edge of it. There need be little more than a slanting roof, with the triangular corners at the ends boarded to keep out the wind. The earth forms a most comfortable bed if kept dry and covered thinly with leaves or straw. Of course, these pens are not suitable for brood animals farrowing during the winter months. Where but one litter of pigs is raised annually, there is little difficulty; if two litters a year be desired, the first one should be farrowed in April or May, and the other in September or October. In either case these cheap detached pens may be not only satisfactory, but they will serve to fit into a system of pig-raising which may be carried on at the minimum of labor and expense and supplementary foods. By means of a tank or barrel mounted on wheels the animals may be fed, either once or twice daily, in large troughs placed in the pasture. This system presupposes ample areas of grass and woodland, which should furnish not only a healthful run for the animals but much food for them.

Usually the mistake is made of confining pigs in small pens, which may or may not have attached to them small yards or runs. These are always devoid of grass, and offensively dusty and filthy a part of the year, and an impassable mud hole at other times. Wherever circumstances will permit, there should be allotted to each brood animal and her offspring one-fourth acre of land. Two small fields might be provided, one of which would serve for pasture ground for all the animals, while the other would be used for raising crops for soiling the pigs or for other purposes. When the lot became fertilized from the droppings of the animals and the grass injured, it should be plowed, cropped and seeded, the animals being pastured meantime in the other field.

Fig. 127. Pig pens. At the left is shown a vertical section, with the roof over the rear. Yard on the right.

Cheap but somewhat more elaborate pens are shown in [Fig. 127]. These may be built in detached pairs, or several pens may be placed in juxtaposition. Each pen, including the small outside yard and feeding floor, both unroofed, is 16 × 16 feet. The part roofed is 8 × 8 feet. After the pigs have attained some size, all doors are opened and the entire herd may be grazed in one field.

Fig. 128. A more elaborate piggery.

Fig. 129. Elevation of the house shown in [Fig. 128].

A better but more expensive piggery, [Figs. 128] and [129], shows five pens, though the plan lends itself to a greater or lesser number. The area devoted to each bed is 8 × 8 feet. The driveway, which also serves for temporary storage of manures, is 8 feet wide and extends lengthwise through the building. The floor of the driveway should be about one foot lower than the feeding and sleeping floors at the middle, and should be paved or asphalted. (See cross section, [Fig. 129].) The feeding floor upon which the troughs rest may be 4 or 5 feet long, and should descend towards the driving floor. Ordinary gates are hung to the posts which serve, with the boarding, to separate the pens. These gates are fastened at the other end of the posts which separate the feeding compartments. When so fastened each brood animal has a bedroom 8 × 8, a receptacle for manure 8 × 8, and a feeding floor 4 × 8 feet. This arrangement presupposes that most of the foods will be fed in the troughs. If, when the animals are first placed in the pens, the paved portion of the floor be soiled with dirt and water, the excreta thereafter will be deposited by the animals on this floor and not in the bedroom. The pig is really a cleanly animal if it is given a few timely sensible hints. When it is desired to remove the manure the gates are all swung to the right or left, as most convenient, and they then serve to fasten all of the animals in the bed compartments, and the driveway is left unobstructed. One of the outside openings to the driveway should also be provided with a gate to swing in, as well as an ordinary door to swing out. These pens may all be thrown open in the summer when it is desired to pasture the herd.

The illustration shows a small wing attached which may serve many useful purposes. A matched upper floor and abundant light and ventilation should be provided. The roof story may be used for housing some corn in the ear and straw for bedding. In cold weather the upper floor should have some straw left on it to promote warmth in the pens below.

The object in discussing these three styles of piggeries has been to emphasize cleanliness, economy of labor in caring for the animals, the comfort of the animals, prevention of wanton waste of manure, and economy in the production of healthy swine in piggeries so arranged that the animals may be conveniently grazed during the summer, and kept reasonably clean and comfortable in winter.