Hog Oilers
As Seen at Renfro Valley Appalachian Harvest Festival__2006
There are two in this photo, the three-legged orange one and also the green and red one.
These are mounted securely to either a fence or the floor such that they can withstand a big hog laying all his weight against them while using them for a scratching post.
The reservoir on top was filled with used engine oil.
Note the ridges cast onto the uprights; these ridges induced the hog to scratch his itchy hide against them.
The pressure of the hog scratching against the oiler opened a valve that allowed the used oil to run down and coat the scratching surface, thus transferring the used oil onto the hog's hide.
It was believed that the used engine oil would kill hog lice on hogs that were already infested and prevent lice on hogs that were not infested.
I have seen people that were too stingy to buy a purpose-made oiler use a water-dipper or old can to drizzle used engine oil along a hog's back-bone; I have also seen them use a wide paint-brush to apply the oil on red/raw inflamed-looking patches where the lice had nearly eaten the hog alive.
Once he got his itching hide well coated with used engine oil, of course the hog's next stop would be to lie down in the creek that always ran through the hog lot.
Lice used to be a huge problem with school kids; the common consensus was that, if old used oil would kill lice on hogs, it would also kill lice on a kid's head; I have seen more than a few scalped kids get on the school bus with what few hairs that had escaped the Sunbeam mule clippers shiny with oil and their whole head about three shades darker than it was the day before.
No matter how bad their heads were itching, girls with a full head of hair would never scratch where anyone could see them, nor ever complain, for fear that those big Sunbeams would be used on them; I have seen more than a few girls with their heads slick as a peeled onion and their faces red with embarrassment.
US Hwy 25 - Renfro Valley - Rockcastle County - Kentucky
I-75 Exit #62
Saturday_07-October-2006
37° 23' 1.07"N 84° 19' 43.12"W Elevation 928'
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Darwin W. Kurtz wrote: