PIGS AND LIME

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19325, 2 June 1925, Page 8

PIGS AND LIME

Many farmers have the opinion that the only use of lime is for whitewashing, and use it very sparingly even at that. The mechanical effect of a good coat of whitewash is well worth its cost, to say nothing of the appearance if imparts to the buildings. Time is one of the most reliable disinfectants and deodorisers, and, at the same time, the cheapest. We use it in the form of whitewash for walls and roosts in chicken houses and walls of pigsties, also the watering and feeding troughs. In the form of air-staked lime it is an excellent absorbent of foul adours. If mixed with Hie droppings of animals :t ceitainly has a tendency to liberate ammonia, but it can be used so as to cause very little waste, land lhe sacrifice of a little ammonia is preferable to Hie ill health of our animals. Milk of hme is an inodorous disinfectant which can be used in concentrated and dilute form. Concentrated milk of hme ,s pi epared by adding slowly, with contn.ual stirring, 3 quarts of water 1o I quart of freshly-slaked lime. Dilute milk ol lime is prepared by adding slowly, with continual stirring, 20 quarts of water to I quart of freshly - slaked lime. Freshly-slaked lime if nmdc by putting newly-burnt lime intc a bucket, covering it with hbout half its quantity of water. It should be sprinkled on the floors of pigstief alter the latter have been cleanea out and before now bedding is put in. A small amount of lime may be added to the pigs’ slop, not enough to make it caustic or to turn it yellow, but jusl enough to sweeten it, and the pigs will relish it. If one would ttike the time to mix it, limewater would bo better for the last-named purpose. To make it, put a good quantity of water on quick lime and use only the clear water that rises after the lime settles. Sprinkle powdered lime on the floors and about the yards of the piggeries; it will not hurt anything, and it has proved effective in checking disease. A pig that has all Me needs in the way of minerals is a more contented pig than any other. Pulverised limestone such as is prepared at tany limeston< quarry, is suitable for a mineral mixture. However, farmers who are not located near a quarry may find it difficult to obtain in small q ’antities. Airslaked lime may be substituted, but the proportions of the mixture should be changed, since air-slaked limo is a more highly concentrated form than ground limestone. Those who have compared the two forms say that a given amount of uir-slaked limo is equal to four or five times as much ground limestone when used in a mineral combination for pigs.