9 Sept., 1907.] h'iftlt C onicutlon, C haiuhcr of Agriculture . 507 



mically on a good deal of waste stuff often regarded as rubbish. Fre- 

 quently food is thrown to them all at once, and thev waste more than 

 they eat, when, if only a small portion was tossed oAer at regular in- 

 tervals, the extra ]al)0ur incurred would be more than compensated by 

 the saving effected. By regularity in feeding, the pigs are contentedly 

 employed during the day, and a placid temperament is thereby encouraged in 

 them. By an established export trade, the price of porkers and baconers 

 would be steadier the year around, whilst the qualitv of the pigs sent 

 to market would be of a higher standard of excellence, for most farmers 

 would feed their pigs similarly, and hence they would command an equal 

 and more certain market on which the producer could rely, that is, for 

 those sold to Victorian consumers. It would then be patent to the pro- 

 ducer to breed and feed pigs of the right sort only, tbt- dav of the 

 mongrel-bred animal would be a thing of the past, and the pig-breeding 

 industry would be an object-lesson to those who have well-bred and good 

 milking cows, but are satisfied with any sort of a bull. 



jJiikKSHJRi: baloneks. 



Best Feed. — In order to obtain food for the pigs, plant such crops as- 

 your land will best produce. Pumpkins, turnips, carrots, melons, sugar- 

 beet, grain (not forgetting peas) are the best to grow. And in regard 

 to the latter especially, you will find no way of securing better returns 

 from your land, for the growing of peas not only cleans the land, but 

 takes little out of it. Yes, as I have said before, fattening pigs is a 

 money-making venture. For instance, take a sow at ten months old. In 

 two years she will produce fi\e litters of an average, of, say, eight pigs 

 a litter. Keep them on vour farm, fatten them, and when fit send 

 to market, and \o\\ can rely on her returning you a gross ;£40 or more 

 a year. Is this not a grand return? If you retain the young pigs 

 until they become baconers, the result will be equally good, for taking 

 the ordinary rate of improvement, the ])ig will go on increasing in weight 

 until he reaches 120 or 160 lb., at which weight he is most in demand by 

 Victorian bacon-curers. Above all things vou must go about the fattening 

 process in a systematic manner. Don't start before vou are ready. Grow 

 such foods for them as will best suit, and provide such accommodation as is 

 absolutely necessary. Then the result will be satisfactory. Of course there 

 are many swamp lands in Gippsland where pigs thrive without artificial 



