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72. 
is the recognised breed—in Queensland at any rate; his colour, activity, and 
general thrifty habits are more suitable to the climate than any other. White 
_ pigs are not thought very favourably of, owing to the sun causing their skin to 
crack and become scurfy. Therefore, secure a pure Berkshire boar to start 
with, snd in doing so select a bour trom a pure herd, whose breeding is not 
doubtful; go and see his sire and dam if possible, and satisfy yourself that 
_ they possess all the good qualities of what good bacon pigs should be—namely, 
quict disposition. plenty of length, short face, wide between the eyes, face well 
disted, level underline. good back slightly arched, ribs well sprung, hams deep, 
round, and full; good silky coat of fine hair, and plenty of it; well-set legs, 
erect cars—nice and fine. Always avoid a coarse, heavy-boned, rongh-looking 
boar, and remember that like begets like. ‘The sow should be rather opposite 
to the boar. What a farmer wants is a good, long, roomy sow, rather coarser 
than the boar. ‘There is no need for her to be pure-bred ; better not, as pure 
Sows are not prolific enough for ordinary purposes. ‘The half or three-quarter 
bred sow that will give her owner ten to thirteen pigs at a litter, and rear them 
well, is the class of sow to mate with the pure sire. Always avoid short, 
nuggety sows for breeding purposes; they, as a rule, give poor litters, are bad 
mothers, are apt to lay on fat in place of yielding a large supply of milk for 
their young, whereas the long, roomy sew will, if anything, lose condition while 
rearing her litter, because she is the better milker of the two. The brood sow 
should have plenty of exercise while in young; she should be active, thrifty, 
and not of a delicate constitution ; a good feeder, with great digestive powers. 
The next point—and a very important one—after you have got your litter of 
young pigs, is to keep them growing, and thisis where so many farmers fail. The 
most serious complaint with many littersis scours. This is generally caused by a 
sudden change of food not suitable to the sow; the best remedy i have found 
is to give the sow a few feeds of poliard mixed rather dry, with a little chalk ; 
or if the young pigs have got to that age that they will drink out of the trough, 
mix a little soot with their food. Either of these simple remedies will check 
_ the complaint. Young pigs should not be allowed to go back fora day; they 
must be kept growing as rapidly as possible if you want to get them off your 
hands. Remember after three weeks the sow is gradually becoming unable to 
_ supply their wants. Your duty then is to provide forthem. The best plan 
_ is to Jet the sow out for an hour or two during the warmer part of the day, 
and give the youngsters a little sweet milk in a small shallow trough; they 
will very soon come up and learn to drink; and you then can gradually leave 
the sow out a little longer every day, and increase their food, adding pollard, 
bran, boiled crushed maize, barley meal, or potatoes. In this way they come 
on very quickly, and never really require any weaning, although it is often 
advisable to remove them to another pen. Give them plenty of good warm 
_ bedding to nestle in; cold, damp, draughty pens are always to be avoided ; 
warmth is a great thing to help pigs on; they cannot stand cold or draughts. 
Tam sorry to say too little attention is paid to piggeries. Small lucerne 
paddocks make the best run for growing pigs. ‘Ihree and four months’ old 
pigs fed in their pens of a morning and allowed the run of a lucerne pateh all day 
and put into their pens and fed at night, come on very quickly; they make 
better growth than pigs constantly penned up; five to six months’ old pigs 
_ treated in this way should fatten readily. When fattening or topping off, 
an acre or two of peas is about as fine a feed as you can turn them on to, but 
few, if any, farmers seem to try it; they prefer to stick to the old plan of 
throwing them ina number of cobs of corn for the pigs to worry at, and in 
dirty pens they waste as much as they eat. Maize is a fattening food, and 
amongst the best, but it is very heating, and pigs become tired of it; they 
want green food with it, also coal or charcoal, a little salt and sulphur now and 
then. Corn and cob meal is a splendid food, and, I think, better than 
whole corn. Pea-fed pork is worth more than any other, and I think it is a 
crop well worth our farmers trying. After your pigs are fattened up to 140 Ib. 
to 150 lb. weight, every day you keep them they are cating their heads off; sO 
