FIRST CENTURY OF DAIRYING IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 



in all books on swine husbandry, is often the most disappointing of 

 luxuries to the pig raiser. A piggery should be well ventilated with- 

 out being exposed to cold winds. Every part should be arranged 

 so that it can be cleaned and dried quickly. 



It is patent, however, that after providing for the constant cleanli- 

 ness and bodily comforts o-i hogs, it is most important that those 

 who are about to embark in this industry should have a thorough 

 knowledge of pig foods and their feeding values. As a practical 

 writer puts it: 



The practical lesson of all this plainly is that young pigs, and in- 

 ferentially young stock of every kind, should be fed on a mixed diet, 

 made up largely of foods rich in nitrogen. What those -foods are 

 will be easily seen by a glance at the table given further on. For 

 young pigs, no single food equals milk, and nothing is better than 

 milk for making superior pork from mature animals. The milk will, 

 in nearly all cases, be fed to best advantage by mixing it with pol- 

 lard when for young pigs, and with maize meal when fed to mature 

 hogs. Maize, barley meal, and like starchy and sugary foods ought 

 to be reserved -for the process of finishing off mature animals, unless 

 mixed largely with foods richer in nitrogen. 



The table following is given with the view to aiding in forming 

 judgment as to the feeding value of familiar agricultural products. 

 While the column headed " Flesh-formers" gives the actual amount 

 of nitrogenous materials albumen and protein contained in each 

 article, its value for this purpose depends not upon the actual amount 

 of nitrogenous or plastic material contained in the 'food, but in the 

 amount relative to the other materials : 



Flesh- Heat and Mineral 



Water. formers. Fat Givers. Matter. 



Barley 15.1 8.0 76.0 0.9 



Beans 12.0 26.0 59.0 3.0 



Bran 12.28 15.07 66.75 57o 



Cotton-seed meal . . . . 8.52 42.39 42.03 7.26 



Cow-pea vines (green) 84.07 3.12 10.98 1.83 



Lucerne 69.95 3-83 14-44 3.64 



Maize 12.0 12.0 75.5 1.5 



Milk (new) 87.2 4.0 8.1 0.7 



Milk (skimmed) .. .. 88.6 4.0 6.6 0.77 



Oats 12.2 18.0 59.0 2.54 



Peas 15.0 22.6 60.5 2.5 



Pollard 12.0 15.17 69.57 3-26 



Potatoes 75.0 1.4 22.6 T.O 



Pumpkins 92.27 T.II 5.99 0.63 



.\>ide from their chemical composition, foods differ greatly in their 

 effect upon the character of meat both fat and lean. Mai/e gives a 

 much firmer, whiter pork, and one that boils awr.y in the pot much 

 less than that made from pollard. Peas, too, make a very firm, sweet 

 pork, while oil-cake and oily foods in general produce a pork that is 

 soft, flabby, and ill-flavoured. 



The following hints from Mr. Watson, a prominent colonial bacon 

 curer, may be o-f interest to non-professional curers in this State: 



" Pigs before being killed should be perfectly cool that is to say, 

 if they have been driven any distance, or even carted to the place 

 of killing, they should be allowed at least a couple of days' rest be- 

 fore being killed. It ha-, been my experience that pigs well fed, and 

 so treated, together with being well slaughtered, are already half 

 cured. 



"Some people run away with the idea that the only way to cure 



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