HOG CHOLERA
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retreat from their mother to a trough supplied with milk or wet
mash. Such a plan will save much drain upon the mother’s
system; will develop the pigs more uniformly and rapidly; will
cause the pigs to learn to eat much younger; will cause less shock
at weaning time and will allow the owner to plan on two litters
a year from each sow. Good feeds to use in the pig creep trough
are middlings wet with skimmilk. Blood meal and tankage are
also used. Pastures should be available not only for the mother
but for the pigs.
Exercise.—From what has been said about pasturage a discus-
sion of exercise seems superfluous, but where pastures are not sup-
plied exercise should be provided in some other way. The shelter
and sleeping quarters may be at one side of the lot and feeding
at the other. This will cause the swine to move back and forth
frequently. Provide some such plan for natural exercise.
Sanitation.—All swine are subject to intestinal worms, lice.
cholera and other troubles. Sanitation is the best precaution.
Pigs are naturally sanitary creatures if they are given facilities
in quarters that are favorable. Worms are taken into the system
by pigs getting the worms into their mouths. This may be from
filthy wallows or from the udders of their mothers. Prevention
consists in keeping the quarters disinfected, the wallows clean and
the feeding places fresh. Pour a little crude oil on hog wallows
to prevent breeding of worms and other enemies. Drain and renew
them occasionally.
If swine be infested with worms they are very unthrifty in
appearance and their feed seems to fail in producing proper
returns. Treat them with five grains of calomel and eight grains
of santonin for each hundred pounds liveweight. Put the medi-
cine in feed or give it as a drench. A teaspoon of turpentine for
a hundred-pound hog is recommended for thorn-head worms. Give
the dose three days in succession.
Lice.—Dips are very effective in thoroughly eradicating lice from
swine. The sleeping quarters must be cleaned up and disinfected at the
same time. Many farmers systematically oil the hogs, using crude oil for
the purpose. If the hog wallow is provided with a scum of crude oil,
hogs will naturally keep themselves well oiled.
Another good plan is to feed the hogs with shelled corn or other grain
and while they are bunched together to eat, sprinkle them with oil from
a garden sprinkler until all are saturated. It may be necessary to spray
them a little underneath as they must be wet all over with the oil. A
rubbing post provided with burlap saturated in oil will do much good but
other methods are needed to supplement this.
Hog cholera is usually in regions where swine have access to flowing
streams, the disease being carried from herds up-stream to others. When-
