202 AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURE. 



singular because maize the great pork producer of 

 America grows to the fullest perfection of quality and 

 weight of crop over a large extent of country, and other 

 foods sugar cane, sweet and common potatoes, wheat, 

 barley, milk, pumpkins, &c., are plentiful. Perhaps the 

 feeling that it is of no use making more pig meat than we 

 can consume is due to the cheapness and abundance of 

 beef and mutton ; and that when higher prices rule for the 

 latter,pigs may be more looked after. Be that as it may, there 

 are few more useful or more satisfactory things about a 

 place than a good pig in the stye, when put up in a proper 

 manner for fattening. The animal agrees well with the 

 climate. He enjoys robust health and a lively appetite. 

 He puts on flesh as rapidly as in any other part of the 

 world. The smaller sizes, those ranging from 801 b. to 

 1501b., dead weight, are the animals most in demand by 

 butchers, and the most suitable for home use. Larger sizes 

 may do for curing in wholesale, always providing that the 

 food given keeps pace in quality and quantity with the 

 improvement. No breed has been invented yet that 

 thrives without feed, though the better sorts make the 

 best out of what they eat. The poor lots make bone, 

 muscle, and trouble amongst neighbors. When stinted 

 of their food, the best sorts become tyrants, and others 

 become miserable spectacles. It is a good rule in pig 

 keeping that keeps up the breed by keeping the troughs 

 well supplied. 



The Pig That Pays. Most people have their ideas as 

 to best breeds of pigs. Colour has much to do with 

 the choice. While numbers, possibly the majority, prefer 

 the Berkshire, black with white points, others give 

 preference to whites, to the Cheshires and medium 

 Yorkshires, and some people actually detest black pigs. 

 And yet the Berkshire cures Al for sides and hams, and the 

 Essex and Tamworths are not far behind for quality. But 

 white pigs have their points, and are not objected to any more 

 than the well-bred black sorts. It is astonishing how 

 quickly even coarse pigs " breed up " when due selection, 

 care in mating, paddocking, and feeding arc attended to. 

 To breed up, or improve, a male animal of the chosen 



