Figure 199.—Concrete Center Alley for Hog House. The upper illustration represents the wooden template used to form the center of the hog house floor.
Figure 200.—Sanitary Pig-Pen. One of the most satisfactory farrowing houses is constructed of concrete posts 6″ square and 6″ square mesh hog fencing and straw. The posts are set to make farrowing pens 8′ wide and 16′ deep from front to back. Woven wire is stretched and fastened to both sides of the posts at the sides and back of each pen. Straw is stuffed in between the two wire nets, thus making partitions of straw 6″ thick and 42″ high. Fence wire is stretched over the top and straw piled on deep enough to shed rain. The front of the pens face the south and are closed by wooden gates. In the spring the pigs are turned out on pasture, the straw roof is hauled to the fields for manure and the straw partitions burned out. The sun shines into the skeleton pens all summer so that all mischievous bacteria are killed and the hog-lice are burned or starved. The next fall concrete floors may be laid in the pens, the partitions restuffed with straw and covered with another straw roof. In a colder climate I would cover the whole top with a straw roof. Sufficient ventilation would work through the straw partitions and the front gate. In very cold weather add a thin layer of straw to the gate.
Figure 201.—Concrete Wall Mold. Wooden molds for shaping a concrete wall may be made as shown. If the wall is to be low—2′ or less—the mold will stay in place without bolting or wiring the sides together. The form is made level by first leveling the 2″ x 6″ stringers that support the form.
Figure 202.—Husking-Pin. The leather finger ring is looped into the recess in the wooden pin.