114 Journal of the Department of Agriculture. — Aug., 1922. 



Farmers' Week in Sundays River Valley. — Mr. A. Owen John, 

 Lecturer in Poultry, has been largely responsible for arrangements 

 in connection with a farmers' week in the Sundays River area during 

 the latter part of September, when a number of officers of the Depart- 

 ment will visit Addo and the surrounding district for the purpose of 

 conducting a series of lectures aad practical demonstrations on feed- 

 ing, housing, selection mating, and breeding of poultry, incubation 

 and chicken rearing, handling and marketing of eggs; laying-out of 

 orcbards, tree-planting, pruning, thinning, and gathering of fruit, 

 spraying orchard trees; dairying, including butter and cheesemaking, 

 and domestic science. 



ELSENBURG, MULDERS VLEI. 



Pig Management — Winter Litters. — As a general rule, it is not 

 a good practice to have sows and gelts litter down during the winter 

 months, particularly if the winters are severe in the district. It is 

 a wiser policy to regulate the bulk, if not all, of the farrowings to 

 take place in the spring and in the autumn, if breeding on commercial 

 lines, and in the early or late spring only if breeding on pure-bred 

 lines and primarily for show purposes. 



Winter farrowing requires closer care and attention to detail if 

 it is to prove successful. In parts of Natal and the Cape it is not, 

 as a rule, required to warm the feed and drinking water, whereas in 

 the Orange Free State and the Transvaal this will often be necessary. 

 Work of this kind is all extra, and adds considerably to the cost of 

 rearing a litter, although it must be admitted that it is often 

 compensated for in the spring when the weaners should ordinarily be 

 growthy enough to go ahead and make rapid and cheap daily gains, 

 provided plenty of green succulent feed is available. In the Orange 

 Free State and Transvaal very little, if any, green feed can ordinarily 

 be expected in the spring, but in the Cape, April and May sown rape, 

 kale, etc., will usually be sufficiently well advanced to warrant pigs 

 being allowed to commence foraging it down as early as the end of 

 June. 



To ensure success in winter litters, the following important 

 details require careful attention, and will be found useful in the 

 management of brood sows at farrowing time generally : — 



1. See that the sow is comfortably housed in a warm, well- 

 lighted, and properly ventilated stye. 



2. Keep the stye clean and dry, and add fresh bedding at least 

 once, but preferably twice, a week. Do not use a lot of long dry grass 

 or straw for bedding, especially when the youngsters are under 3-4 

 weeks old, as they will instinctively hide away under it, and so be 

 lain on. It is best to use sawdust, particularly on a cold cement floor, 

 whilst chaff is also preferable to long grass. A wooden sleeping-board, 

 5 ft. 6 in. by 3 ft. 6 in., placed in the cosy corner of the pen^ can be 

 used where sawdust, chaff, or other suitable bedding is not available. 



3. See that the farrowing rails are in order. They should be 

 about 9 in. high, and 9-10 in. from the wall of the pen. Fir spars. 



