818 



THE AGBICULT 



URAL JOURNAL. 



sows that were really not for sale; had 

 been reserved by the breeders for show 

 purposes in England, and the sire of the 

 boar he got had won 20 prizes and 

 championships. The sows, before being 

 shipped, were put to other thoroughbred 

 boars of other strains than the boar sent, 

 so that the writer got a very varied, 

 pure-bred assortment to start with. When 

 Ladysmith was invested and Natal 

 threatened. Government sent appraisers 

 round Maritzburg district to value all 

 farm stock, in case the Boers should 

 come and sweep it off. These imported 

 pigs were officially valued at £40 each. 



Everyone was against the writer when 

 he proposed trying pig-farming, and said 

 pigs would pay to buy from the Kafirs 

 ready grown, to feed up and sell off when 

 mealies could be had at 5s. a muid, but 

 not otherwise; it would never do to breed 

 them in any numbers. The writer con- 

 tended that the Kafir pig was the worst 

 ]ng to work on, that mealies were the 

 worst pig food to give them, and that a 

 good breed of pigs properly fed should 

 pay; but he had to find out for himself 

 in the main how to solve the problem. 

 Mr. W. Nicholson, of Sneddon, near 

 h'iehmond, Natal, gave him much good 

 advice. 



I'lg-farming sounds easy. It spells 

 cbeap stocking and quick returns. In 

 reality it is the most expensive stock 

 farming to go properly into, that is as a 

 sheep farmer will go in for sheep, or a 

 dairy farmer will undertake dairying. Pigs 

 require constant attention, regular feed- 

 ing; they won't stand neglect or irregu- 

 larity in that matter, and they require a 

 lot of food if sufficient numbers are kept 

 to make the venture pay, and they can- 

 not be left to the care of the hired lab- 

 our available here. They should be kept 

 in s('i)ai'ate herds according to ages and 

 sex, and only fencing of the very best 

 cnn do that, and pig proof fencing is ex- 

 pensive. If herding is necessary, they 

 i('(|uire the very best herds, and if there 

 is very much unfenced cultivation about, 

 herding is impossible. A pig cannot be 

 seen in long grass or in a mealie field, 

 as an ox can, and if they get into a neigh- 

 bour's crops they leave ample evidence 

 of their having been there, for they put 



their whole heart into their work and 

 display a singleness of purpose and 

 energy of execution that would command 

 respect under other circumstances. 



Further, unless quickly reared and sold 

 oft' within the twelve months, they eat 

 their heads off'. The only time pork is 

 marketable in any quantity in this coun- 

 try is in the winter. It requires no little 

 management to make all these conditions 

 fit in one with another. 



The writer started with the idea that 

 pigs at any rate could not be easily 

 stolen without raising an alarm: he never 

 made a greater mistake. 



There is one difficulty in pig-farming 

 in South Africa that the writer does not 

 know how to cope with. Why do farm- 

 ers get so little from butchers for their 

 Kafir-reared, fed-up pigs? Because all 

 such Kafir-bred pigs have lived on the 

 excreta to be picked up round the kraals. 

 The Kafirs suffer much from worms, 

 and the pigs get them from them, and 

 however well the pigs look when sold by 

 the farmer, the butcher knows that, when 

 they are killed, a very large proportion 

 of them may be found unfit for human 

 food from this cause. To guard against 

 this, the writer insists on his Kafirs re- 

 filing to a certain part of his farm where 

 fhe pigs cannot go. But so long at 

 natives can trespass in all directions on 

 private property as they do, so long will 

 the pig farmer be liable to loss on this 

 account; and the loss may be very serious, 

 for, with the greatest care, the evil can- 

 not be remedied under four months. 

 Once his pigs are killed and found to be 

 infected, it may be at the commencement 

 of the winter season, the season, the 

 whole year may be lost. 



The labour question is a serious diffi- 

 culty. Both Kafirs and Indians have 

 many objections to working with pigs, 

 and these scruples have to be overcome 

 by higher wages. 



The writer had been told that the at- 

 fouipt had frequently been made to farm 

 ])igs, i.e., as principal stock of the farm, 

 huf had never been attended with suc- 

 cess. But the plan seemed so easy, the 

 refurns so rapid, that he did not realise 

 the difficulties of the undertaking until 



