71 
Mr. Tyne said a difficulty in cow peas-was the mowing. If the vines 
were cut with a horse rake in the ordinary way they would get too much of 
the soil mixed with them, and they would not make as good fodder as they 
otherwise would. A new system, however, was to lift the cutter in a particular’ 
way and haye a machine like a reaper and binder that would throw the vines 
on one side, so that the liorses did not tramp on and spoil them. When these 
vines were ultimately prepared and stacked away they were excellent to mix 
with maize fodder. 
Professor Suevron said he had always taken the deepest interest in the 
cow pea. Mr. Briinnich’s method of manuring was on the whole the cheapest 
and most satisfactory that could be employed. Barnyard manure was of 
course good, but the mere hauling of it, to say nothing of the cost of the manure 
itself, wasa tremendous burden. Cow peas, on the otkerhand, required no special 
cultivation, and were easily ploughed under. As to time, do not plough under 
a great mass of green sour peas. Do not plough them under three or four 
months before you want to use the land. On the contrary, let the vines lie on the 
ground and rot there if needs be. Very little of their valuable ingredients 
would be lost, as tte ground would absorb all the decomposing material and 
the rain would carry it down into the soil. Then when it was necessary to 
plough the land for the next crop, plough the decaying vines in. With 
regard to removing the vines for fodder, of course, if the manure was returned 
to the soil great benefit would accrue. Even supposing, however, the vines 
were made into hay and sold off the farm, the soil would still have benefited 
materially from the cow peas growing upon it. In the case of clover, this fact 
had been conclusively proved in England by Dr. Voelker. Mr. Briinnich had 
mentioned the mechanical effects of cow pea on the soil, and he would also 
like to mention the smothering effects. No wecd could live where there was a 
crop of cow pea. Even nut-grass, he thought, might succumb to it. In fact 
Mr. Knox, of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, had told him nut-grass 
could be completely smothered by cow peas. It was one of the most useful 
crops they could grow, whether for fodder or for green manuring. 
Mr. Wutrexey asked if the cow pea could be used in an orchard. 
Professor SHELTON said he would not advise planting cow peas or anything — 
similar in an orchard, and Mr, Mourpay agreed with him. 
Mr. Benson said they would be useful in an orchard as a mulch, but for 
nothing else. 
Mr. Caswenn (Wallumbilla) also bore testimony to the value of the cow 
pea. He had been growing it four years, and had proved its value as a manure 
on land on which it had been ploughed under, on land on which it had been 
allowed to rot, and on land on which it had been grown, but from which the 
vines had been removed for fodder. 
Mr. W. R. Roxzryson, of Toowoomba, then read the following essay on— 
BACON PIGS AND HOW TO BREED THEM. 
It is the duty of every farmer who keeps a pig to endeavour to produce a 
class of animal that he can obtain the highest price for. Buyers are always 
open to give a higher price for a good, shapely pig than a common ill-bred 
slab; moreover, the superior animal will give the breeder or fattener a 
quicker return than the inferior one. JI am free to admit a wonderful 
improyement has taken place in our pigs during the past five years. The pig 
industry in Queensland promises to be a very large and profitable one. A tew 
years ago, to see fifty or sixty pigs yarded at a sale was considered a big sale ; 
in Toowoomba alone, we now put through as many as 450 on one sale. But 
there is still room for improvement in our bacon and pigs. ‘The first point 
to be taken into consideration is the selection of the sire. The old idea of 
“half the breeding goes down the throat”’ is exploded. Take, for instance, the 
weedy-hammed pig that one often sees roaming about the up-country 
stations; all the feeding in the world will never make it a good, shapely bacon 
pig; you may put a certain amount of fat on it, and that’s all. The Berkshire 
