imperfectly built sheds; this was an error, and a fruitful source of disease, and of unthrifty animals.
In large establishments where numerous pigs are kept, there should be divisions appropriated to all the different kinds of pigs; the males, the breeding sows, the newly weaned, and the fattening pigs should all be kept separate; and it were as well that in the divisions appropriated to the second and last of these four classes, there should be a distinct apartment for each animal, all opening into a yard or enclosure of limited extent. As pigs require warmth, these buildings should face the south, and be kept weather-tight and well drained. Good ventilation is also important, for it is needless to expect animals to make good flesh and retain their health unless they have a sufficiency of pure air. The blood requires it to give it vitality and free it from impurities, as much as the stomach requires wholesome and strengthening food, and when it has it not, becomes vitiated, and impairs all the animal functions.
"The blood, the fountain whence the spirits flow,
The generous stream that waters every part,
And motion, vigor, and warm life conveys
To every moving, breathing particle,"
becomes contaminated by those aërial poisons given out bv the decaying vegetable matter, rotten or damp litter, accumulations of dung, and animal exhalations engendered by ill-ventilated styes. These noxious gases are inhaled by the breath, and absorbed by the skin, until they enter the circulation, and impair its vivifying fluid. It is by the action of the atmospheric air that venous blood is converted into arterial, freed from all its impurities, and rendered fit to sustain all the vital functions; hence it must be at once evident that if this important agent is in the first place contaminated, its action must be impaired and its effects empoisoned. Besides, bad smells and exhalations injure the flavor of the meat.
Damp and cold floors should also be guarded against, as they tend to induce cramp and diarrhœa; and the roof so contrived as to carry off the wet from the pigs.
The walls of a well-constructed sty should be of solid masonry; the roof sloping, and furnished with spouts to carry off the rain; the floors either slightly inclined towards a gutter made to carry off the rain, or else raised from the ground on beams or joists, and perforated so that all urine and moisture shall drain off. Bricks and tiles are much used for the flooring of styes, but are objectionable, because, however well covered with litter, they still strike cold; wood is far superior in this respect; as well as because it admits of those clefts or perforations being made which we have just recommended, and which not only serve to drain off all moisture, but admit fresh air as well. The value of the litter and dung as
