OCR Text |
Show PORTABLE HOG PEN IS HANDY Those That Will Accommodate Sew-: eral Medium Sized Hogs in Common Com-mon Use by Small Farmers. A portable hog pen that will accommodate accom-modate several medium sized hogs or four shoats is in common use by the small farmers and truckers of the New England states. These pens are found convenient, sanitary and far superior to the stationary pen, which Is more or less a nusiance in thickly settled sections. The portable pens are gradually coming into use in the trucking sections of New Jersey, as their many excellent points become better known. They are Just the thing for the one-acre man. The following method of building a cheap, convenient conven-ient hog pen that Is portable Is given by a New England farm paper: Take two pieces of hard timber, white oak is best, 3 by 9 inches each, 15 feet in length, rounded off at the end in the form of a sled runner, then lay them parallel eight feet apart, with the rounded edge on the ground. Take four 2 by 4 scantlings and halve or tenon In crosswise, one piece at each end and eight inches from the ends of the runners and place the others so as to support a floor in one-half one-half of the pen. Adjust these strips so they will set about two inches below be-low the level of the upper edge of the runners, then lay a floor of one-Inch oak planks over one-half of the pen, leaving the other half a dirt floor. Some have the o. :er yard slotted,, which will allow the hogs to graze off the grass, but will prevent the sod from being rooted up. The sides of pen should be slatted. Now mortise in 2 by 4 scantling at each corner and midway for posts on which to nail half-inch boards for the enclosing. enclos-ing. One-half of the pen should be covered; and for this reason make the posts for the siding about one foot longer on one side than on the other, so as to give sufficient slope to the roof. The roof should be high enough to allow a man to walk into the pen. If only one-half of the pen is floored there must be a partition across, and in this arrange a slide door so as to shut the shoats In or out of either section. The roof of covered cover-ed pen may be made of half-inch stuff and covered with tar paper, then give two coats of hot lime wash as a preservative. pre-servative. A pair of horses can readily read-ily move a pen of this size from place to place. |