TEE AOBICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



817 



and feed in peace, for the larger ones 

 cannot get in to disturb tlioiii. All 

 troughs are of iron, and are easily kept 

 clean. 



The pigs are fed night and morning, 

 and are run out on the veld during the 

 day. They root actively early in the 

 forenoon and late in the afternoon; hut 

 during the heat of the day they lie 

 about in a wooded donga through which 

 is led running water, with pools for 

 their convenience. 



Paddocks, of about four to six acres 

 each, well fenced, are cultivated for pig 

 food exclusively. The pigs are turned 

 into root in the newly turned over land 

 on the aftermath, or to live on the crops 

 themselves. 



Pigs should be made to feed themselves 

 in a great measure, otherwise they will 

 never pay. It should never be lost sight 

 of that the pig is a graminivorous ani- 

 mal, which, in its wild state, lives on 

 grass and roots, and should always have 

 green food. Let him out to grass and 

 he will half feed himself. It is a great 

 mistake to keep pigs fat in this climate. 

 They should be in good, healthy, active, 

 growing condition, and only fattened up 

 for the butcher. 



It is quite a fallacy to think pigs will 

 find much sustenance in a vlei. Food 

 must be grown for them. For this pur- 

 pose, buckwheat is a grand crop. The 

 pigs can be turned in on it six weeks 

 after it is sown. When nearly fed down 

 it can be ploughed in, and six weeks 

 later it is ready again. Lucerne is ano- 

 ther sheet anchor when it is properly 

 established. Barley, oats, and other 

 grain crops, sown alone or with vetches, 

 to be eaten off green or fed to them, are 

 grand winter sustenance when under irri- 

 gation. Barley and vetches sown to- 

 gether, the barley can be cut green for 

 market, then the vetches sown come away 

 under irrigation, and the pigs revel in 

 it. Cabbages are very fattening, so are 

 mangolds. Pumpkins and Kafir melons 

 help. Swedes are good, biit not turnips. 

 The pig weed, Umhuya, is worth sowing 

 in odd manured corners. Down here 

 near Maritzburg, sweet potatoes are a 

 grand stand-by for winter. Pigs are 

 equally fond of the tops and the roots, 



and the plant is proof against locusts. 

 Sweet potatoes make excellently flavoured 

 bacon. liound potatoes are no use what- 

 ever unless boiled. Pigs are very fond 

 of teosinte, but it is only a summer, and 

 almost a coast, crop. Sugar-cane they are 

 very fond of. Treacle, even linseed meal 

 are" capital additions to their food. 

 Brewers' grains are useful to fill up, but 

 should not be given in bulk, only mixed 

 with other food, and well soaked, they 

 swell so. Green mealies cut and carried 

 to them come in handy when fattening. 

 Dry mealies are an expensive food, and 

 should be used but sparingly, and cither 

 soaked or ground into meal. 



It wovdd be worth while a pig farmer 

 planting a forest of oaks. Acorns come 

 in just when wanted, and make grand 

 bacon. 



When deciding what kind of pig was 

 best to go in for, the writer made en- 

 quiries in all directions. He found the 

 black pig to be the farmers' fancy. They 

 reject a white pig very much as they 

 would reject a white ox for transport. 

 But on the whole the trade prefer the 

 white, the two rival breeds being the 

 Black Berkshire and the Middle White 

 Yorkshire. The Berkshire has too much 

 head and shoulder, and these are the 

 coarser parts, and it is a shorter pig, 

 Without the shoulder, the side is too 

 short to give a good flitch of bacon, and 

 the Berkshire is not easily fenced in, 

 while the Yorkshire is a fine, long bodied 

 pig, well proportioned, coarse nowhere, 

 and has a quiet contented disposition, 

 grows well, fattens readily, and gives a 

 fine, clean, attractive carcase. The large 

 Yorkshire is too big for this climate, 

 where peo})le are conscious of having 

 livers, and do not like too fat pork or 

 bacon; but the middle-white Yorkshire 

 makes an ideal pig. A first cross be- 

 tween a middle-white and a Berkshire 

 gives an excellent pig for the market, 

 but the cross should not go further. 



When the writer wrote Home for mid- 

 dle-white pigs, he told his agent that "as 

 he was going to the expense of import- 

 ing, he might as well be at the top of the 

 tree; to consider quality rather than ex- 

 pense." The consequence was he got 



