The important factor to consider in this connection is the height of the windows, represented at E and D, in connection with the width and manner of construction of the building. The upper part of the window, E, is placed 5 feet 6 inches above the floor. With this arrangement of window for the pen on the south side, the ray of light that passes through the upper part of the window in the shortest day of the year, namely about December 21, and at noon when the sun is at its highest point during the day, in the latitude of Urbana, Illinois (about 40° north), will strike the floor of the pen on the opposite side from the window, thus allowing the total amount of light coming through the window at this season of the

not only warms and dries the building, but destroys disease germs, thus making the building both comfortable and sanitary. This is further augmented by the window, F, which acts as a ventilator. It is hung with hinges at the top and supplied with a cord over pulleys, so that it can be opened and closed at will by the attendant standing on the floor of the alley. Furthermore, this building will not admit the rays of direct sunlight to the pens during the hot part of the day in summer, making it a comfortable place for the sows to farrow in August. To secure this arrangement of windows in the latitude above cited, it is necessary to have the top of the window on the south side 5 feet 6 inches from the floor and the top of the window which North

year and time of day to fall on the floor within the pen. In the morning and in the afternoon when the sun is not at its highest point, this beam of light will pass beyond the pen; but as the sun rises in its course, as the days grow longer, there will be more and more direct light from the sun on the floor of the pen. Consequently, in the winter months there will be a maximum amount of sunlight falling on the floor. The window, D, in the upright part, which is on the south side of the alley, performs a similar function for the pen, B, on the north side of the alley.

By this arrangement of windows, insuring a maximum amount of sunlight on the floor in the shortest days of winter, the interior of the hoghouse and especially the beds will be warm and dry, thus making it possible to have pigs farrowed very early in the season. Moreover, sunlight

throws the light into the pen on the north side 9 feet 8 inches from the floor. This necessitates a flat roof for the part of the building south of the alley, which must necessarily be made of some material that will shed water at a slight pitch. The wall on the north side is made as high as that on the south side, but the roof on the north side and alley is made steeper to provide more air space and good ventilation. This part of the roof may be covered with shingles. Structurally, the weakest part of the building is where the flat roof joins the upright, for this place will leak unless extra care is taken in the construction.

Serviceability.

In order to be serviceable to the utmost, a hoghouse should be constructed so that it can be used every day in the year. To be an economizer of labor,

the house should be planned so that the largest amount of work may be performed by a single attendant. This, in the present day of scarcity of labor, is a very important factor. Fig. 343 shows the ground plan of a hoghouse, a part of which was built at the Illinois Experiment Station in the season of 1904; the remainder is being built at the present time (fall of 1905). The ground plan of the complete structure, which is 120 feet long by 30 feet wide, is represented in Fig. 343, by O, S, T, U. The long dimension of the hoghouse is east and west, thus permitting the sun to enter the side of the building as already described. The alley, X, which runs lengthwise through the center of the building, is 8 feet wide. This permits of driving through with a wagon, which allows the feed and bedding to be hauled into the building where it is needed and the manure to be loaded on the wagon directly from the pens and hauled to the fields. By this means it is possible to perform a maximum amount of work with a minimum amount of labor.

The pens A are 10 feet wide and 11 feet deep. Each pen has a doorway leading to the outside, which is closed by a door sliding upward. There is also a door opening into the alley on the inside. This door is hung so that when it is open it will turn the pigs toward the front end of the hoghouse, where they are to be weighed. It also permits of changing pigs from any pen to any other pen, and of easy access for the attendant to the pen. The trough, L, is placed on the side of the pen next to the alley, and with the arrangement of a swinging panel above this trough, as is shown in Fig. 344, makes feeding a very easy and convenient operation. The fender in the pen is shown by K in Fig. 343. This is made of 2-inch tubular iron placed on iron posts of the same size, set in concrete in the floor. This fender is placed 8 or 9 inches above the floor and about 6 inches from the wall, and is to prevent the sows from lying on the pigs at farrowing time. The sow will necessarily make her bed in this corner, as all the other three corners are occupied, two of which have doors and the other the feed-trough. In the scale room, D, Fig. 343, is placed a platform scale, E, on which the pigs are to be weighed as desired. This platform scale has a frame on it, and the door on the side next to the alley opens as shown at Q, so that when the pigs come down the alley they will necessarily have to walk on the scales. At the other side of the scale platform is a smaller door in the frame which opens through a door, V, of the building, thus allowing the pigs to pass from the scale room directly to the outside, where there may be a chute leading to a wagon, in case they are to be loaded and taken to market. In experimental feeding the pigs may be driven to the scale, weighed and again returned to the pens, with very little work or trouble. The feed-mixing room is represented by F, in which is a table, J, and small feed-bins, I, for feeds of various kinds. From the hydrant, H, water is drawn for mixing slops, and the hose is attached to it to sprinkle the floors; from it also water is furnished in the troughs to

the pigs after they have finished eating. Separate water-troughs are supplied in the pens on the outside of the building. The letter G shows the office, and C the feed-bins in which is stored the feed as it is hauled to the hoghouse. The opening to these feed-bins is from the main alley of the hoghouse, from which the feed is put into the bins directly from the wagon; it is taken out in smaller quantities and put into the small bins in the feed-mixing room, from which it is weighed out to the pigs at feeding time. By B is shown an alley which leads through the door, T', to the yard, Y, on the outside. Opposite this is the yard Z. These two yards are not connected with pens on the inside of the building and are used as boar pens, and are supplied with separate cots and feedtroughs on the outside. The remainder of the pens on the outside, shown as A', are the same

Fig. 344. Interior of the hoghouse built at the Illinois Experiment Station. All gates and partitions are made of iron. Note the swinging panel about the trough in the central pen.

width as the pens inside and are 28 feet long. They are connected with the pens on the inside by means of the doors above mentioned, the outer end opening to the lane which leads to the pastures. The partitions between these pens on the outside are made of two lengths of common fencing, one 16 feet and the other 12 feet long. The 12-foot length is next to the building and made into a gate so that it will swing. By opening all these gates and swinging them one way, and away from the building, it makes an alley along the outside of the building that can be used in case it is not desirable to use the alley in the building for taking out the manure, but this is not so convenient as driving through the alley on the inside.

In Fig. 344 is shown the interior of the north side of the section of hoghouse represented in Fig. 342. All the gates and partitions on the interior are made of wire-netting panels. Wire is considered better for this purpose than lumber, for several reasons, as follows: (1) There are no obstructions to light. The rays of light coming through the windows are not prevented from reaching the floor, where they are most needed; they keep the floor or bed in which the pigs sleep dry, warm and disinfected. (2) By this means there is not the opportunity for disease germs to lodge in cracks and crevices or in the shadow of solid fences; and

in case the hoghouse should ever become infected with communicable disease it can be much more easily and thoroughly disinfected. (3) The hogs are kept within sight of each other and of the attendant. By this means the sows, when they are shut

Fig. 345. A good wooden hoghouse.

up to farrow, will not become estranged from one another, and will not be so likely to fight after returning to a common pasture. The argument in favor of the individual houses is that hogs are kept away from each other so that they can not fight; but in this kind of a large hoghouse they can be kept together, thus necessitating fewer pastures and allowing the general farmer to utilize all his fields as hog pastures at different seasons of the year or in different years, and at the same time preventing the fighting. The hogs may be allowed to go in a drove from the hoghouse to any field on the farm, and with very little training each sow with her litter will return to her own pen at night.

An objection has been urged against the large hoghouse to the effect that, by having a large number of brood-sows in such close proximity to each other, if one is disturbed all will jump up, and when feeding is begun at one end all the others will become uneasy and perhaps injure the litters. This objection may hold when the partitions are solid board fences, but by the arrangement herein described the sows can see each other and know what is going on about them, and, not being strange to each other nor the attendant, will not be disturbed. If the feeding is done regularly and in the same order each day, the sows or pigs soon become accustomed to the system and wait patiently for their turn. Furthermore, by this arrangement of wire partitions the little pigs are more easily tamed and will do better because they will not become frightened every time a person passes the pen.

The floor of the hoghouse is made of hard brick, laid on side in the pens and laid on edge in the alley. Lumber is not used, because, being necessarily laid on the ground to prevent cold air or cold drafts getting beneath the floor, it will rot out quickly, making it very expensive. Brick is used rather than cement, because it is thought to be a little warmer in winter and not so slippery. Brick is colder in winter than lumber, but this can be obviated by using bedding or by making a portable floor of one-inch lumber for the corner of

the pen where the bed is. Fig. 342 shows the exterior of the section of the hoghouse that has already been built.

Accessibility to pasture.

The third general characteristic of a successful hoghouse is that it should be accessible to pasture. Fig. 347 shows an arrangement by which this can be accomplished. In this cut B represents the hoghouse, A' the small pens on the outside adjacent to the pens on the inside, and Y, the boar pens mentioned above. By L is shown a small pasture that may be used for a boar or any other hog or pigs. The lane by which the hoghouse is approached is at D; E and F are lanes leading from each side of the hoghouse to the pastures. The pastures for the hogs that have access to the north side of the building are shown by H, and by J the pastures for those on the south side. This arrangement is only suggestive, and may be modified to suit the location or the fancy of the builder.

Operation of large hoghouse.

The large hoghouse is planned to supply the needs of the man who raises hogs for the general market as well as the one who produces high-class breeding stock. It will permit of producing two litters per year from the same sows. This, it is very often said, can not be done successfully. But the cow, the mare, and many other animals will support one young at the udder and at the same time the embryo of another within the uterus. The sow can produce two litters per year and never be supporting more than one at the same time.

The sows are bred to farrow in February. During the winter, in order to get exercise they are allowed to run on a pasture or in a barnyard and to come to the hoghouse to get their feed both night

makes it undesirable in a highly organized fruitgrowing business in which it is often necessary to hold fruit late in the spring. The fall is the critical period in the keeping of apples. They must be cooled quickly after picking to insure good keeping. If the climate can be depended on to do this, the common storage building is the most satisfactory type of farm storage house.

The ice-cooled

storage build

ing.

An ice-cooled storage building is adapted to

tion of salt. Buildings of this kind are common in New York along the Hudson river, many of them having formerly been ice-cooled buildings but which are now remodeled.

The ice and salt are placed in galvanized iron tubes 10 to 12 inches in diameter, extending from the top of the storage room either along the walls or through the center of the room, or in both positions, to a trough near the floor in which the water is carried off. The tubes extend through the ceil

sections where ice can be harvested or purchased cheaply. The building is easily constructed, and, if managed carefully, gives satisfactory results when the fall weather is cool. An ice-cooled plant may produce a temperature as low as 34° to 36° Fahr., but in practice the temperature does not often fall lower than 40°. The practical drawbacks in icecooled buildings are the slow cooling of the fruit during hot weather, which allows the ripening and the diseases to develop; the poor circulation of air in the room as the fruit cools; the unequal distribution of temperature; the excessive humidity, and the wet condition of the floor and walls in the average plant of this kind. Ice-cooled storage buildings are generally short-lived. The ice tanks leak in time, and the water gets into the insulation and woodwork, causing them to rot. This is the practical history of a large proportion of icecooled storage houses throughout the country. These difficulties may be overcome to a large extent by more expensive construction and greater care in management. Figs. 349, 350, 351, from Circular

44, Illinois Experiment Sta

tion, show details of ice store-houses.

A building cooled

with ice and
salt.

In order to produce a lower temperature and a quicker cooling of storage products, a mixture of ice and salt, instead of ice, is frequently used in

farm storage

ing of the room and terminate in a trough in a room above. They are filled with crushed ice and salt, using about 7 per cent of salt when the fruit is warm, and half as much after it is cool. When the temperature falls below 32° in the mixture, the moisture of the storage room freezes on the pipes, making the air of such a room drier than an ice-cooled room. The "snow" formed in this way has to be chopped off the pipes occasionally. The temperature is varied by the proportion of salt and by the number and size of the pipes in use. If fruit is piled near the pipes it is likely to be frozen. The fruit in the center of the room may be 10° warmer. After the fruit is cooled and the fruit-grower learns to manage the pipes, the temperature can be held with a fair degree of uniformity at 32°, or at any other temperature. A

plant of this kind is also likely to be comparatively short-lived unless the greatest care is used to keep the water off the floors and walls. It is generally more efficient than an ice-cooled plant.

buildings. A temperature of 32° Fahr. is readily attained by using about 5 to 7 per cent by weight of salt, and temperatures as low as 10° to 15° Fahr. can be produced by increasing the propor

by forcing calcium chlorid brine, cooled by ice and salt, through pipes in the storage rooms, or by circulating air that has passed over the cold pipes, is one of the most satisfactory farm storage plants. This is known as the "Cooper GravityBrine System." It is similar to an ammonia-cooled

storage building, except that the brine is cooled by ice and salt and is circulated automatically. It is the reverse of a hot-water plant in a dwelling-house. An insulated tank is constructed in a room at a level