Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/508

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��Popular Science Monthly

��house are 5' in height. When the last course of tile is being laid, do not for- get to insert the anchor bolts in the mortar joints every 6'. Let the thread- ed end of the bolt project at least 2^/^" so that the 2" x 8" wood plate can be securely bolted to the tile wall. It is then possible to spike the roof rafters of the house to this wood plate. As the tile walls are going up. set in place the door frames for the pen doors and also the end doors. These are only made of 2" x 8" planks, with spikes driven into them so that they will be well bonded to the tile walls.

The roof building is the next step. Make it at half pitch with the 2x6" rafters, 2' center to center. Use 16' lum- ber and tie every set of rafters with a 6 board 12' long. This makes a stiff frame and a solid foundation for the roof. Any cheap lumber can be used for sheathing. Space the boards 1% apart. The cedar shingles should be applied with galvanized three-pen- ny nails and laid with not over 4^/^ exposed to the weather. The roof sash or the skylights have a metal flashing so that they will not leak. These sash frames are set in place as the roof is being shingled. The roofing will run up over the metal flashing. The glass in the roof sash is covered with hard- ware cloth to prevent hail damage. That completes the shell of the house.

The floors are the next step in the process of erecting a modern hog house. The tile for the floors may be seconds. Lay them on a well-tamped sand and gravel cushion and cover the tile and the joints with a rich mix- ture of sand and cement, mixed one to two. A floor so made, with an air space under it, is warm, drv and healthy. The feed-alley floor is all concrete, 5' thick, and the hog-troughs are made of the same material. The pen partitions can be made of either tile or wood planks. Make the pens size 6' x 8'. This is the generally accepted standard- size farrowing pen.

The recent cholera epidemics and other swine troubles have in a large measure been traced back to the old filthy, germ-ridden, dark hog pens on most corn-belt farms. This great loss from disease has taken millions of dol-

��lars from hog growers' bank accounts. It has driven home a lesson, never- theless. It has, in a way, revolution- ized the management of swine and has brought about a general cleaning-up policy, better sanitation and better health for the porker, so that he wdil be in a prime condition to fight dis- ease when it appears.

A Hen-House Water Supply Which Will Not Freeze

TO make a non-freezable drinking fountain for the hen house the fol- lowing material will be needed : One soap or cracker box ; a lantern ; two gal- vanized iron pails, about two-quart ca- pacity ; and enough heavy asbestos paper to line box with a double thickness to keep in the heat generated by the lan- tern and for fire prevention.

The box must be large enough to hold

���The deflected heat from the lantern keeps the fountain from freezing

the lantern and two pails. Two holes are cut in the top of box, one at each end, allowing the pails to sink into the box with only about 3" protruding; in- side the box, between the pails, the lan- tern should be placed. The heat will be deflected by the lantern top and the box around the water pails, thus keeping the water a few degrees above freezing even in coldest weather.

The box is placed on a platform. This, in addition to being a support for perches on which the fowls stand while drinking, is also the bottom of the heat box upon which the lantern rests. When filling or cleaning the lantern, the box and pails are lifted from the platform, but when filling the pails, they are sim- ply removed from the holes.

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