1 June, 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 441 
Wheat makes good feed for pigs if it is first steamed or boiled. When 
wheat gets below a certain price, then it will pay the farmer to turn it into bacon 
and ham. 
Pigs will always thrive better where they have a grass run than where they 
are shut up all their short lives in a narrow sty. 
Always take care to have some charcoal lying about where the pigs can get 
atit. Pigs suffer from acidity of the stomach in the same manner as human 
beings do, and charcoal has the effect of correcting the acidity. 
There are many little things which do not cost much that ought to be 
carefully attended to in the rearing of pigs and making of pork. Whatever 
contributes to the comfort and health of the animals should never be overlooked 
or neglected. They should have clean, dry quarters, cool and comfortable in 
summer and warm in winter. Without such shelter, they cannot get a sufficiency 
of pure, life-giving air to maintain health and stimulate growth. Their food 
must be clean, sweet, and wholesome, and a supply of pure water to drink is 
indispensable. Some dry concentrated food in summer and succulent food in 
winter are necessary, if the best results are to be produced. A mixture of 
charcoal, sulphur, ashes, and salt—always accessible to pigs—will be found 
efficient in conserving and promoting health. One who never tried it will be 
surprised at the amount of such mixture which a pig will eat. Then fine and 
coarse food should be duly mixed, not only to nourish the body, but to keep the 
digestive organs in good condition and the bowels open. 
SOWS THAT WILL NOT BREED. 
Says “Theodore Lewis” :—‘ Someone may have non-breeding sows that 
will not become impregnated. © Give them daily a gill of fine ground hemp-seed, 
in dry meal of corn and shorts, or ground feed.” 
“No peach-fed pork sold here,” was a notice posted ina New York provision 
store some time ago. The hogs which fed on fallen peaches in the large orchards 
developed an enormous amount of yellowish fat. The public do not want pigs 
bred for lard. What they want is bacon, nice streaky alternations of fat and 
lean; so the demand now is for leaner pork. The pigs generally bred in Queens- 
land supply this demand to perfection. It is not so much the pig as the pig- 
feeder who is to blame for an excess of fat. To produce good bacon, a pig should 
not be a corn-fed animal. Corn is good to “top up? with. Skim milk and bran, 
whey, and the waste of the flour-mills, with as much green food and roots as 
they can feat, are good for producing a bacon and ham which will meet the 
public taste. If ham is sold at 1s. per Ib., and half of it is fat, which people 
cannot eat, then that ham costs the consumer 2s. per Ib., and is therefore dear 
at the price. ; : 
A pig can be so fed as to put on 1 Ib. of flesh per day. 
Some people have an idea that a pig should always be eating, but a pig can 
be overfed. Keep the animal and its trough clean, give it plenty of fresh water, 
and feed judiciously. The pig will lay on weight quite fast enough. 
Should the sow carry her pigs beyond the usual period of gestation, it 
frequently happens that the piglings’ teeth will have made an abnormal growth, 
and in some instances the teeth will have become discoloured to an extent which 
has led to the common saying that “ pigs born with black teeth never do well.” 
These little teeth are often very long and very sharp, so that, when the 
little pigs attempt to suck, the teeth extend beyond the tongue of the pig and 
prick the inflamed and tender udder of the sow, giving her great pain, which 
frequently causes her to refuse to suckle the pigs, and sometimes she will attack 
the little ones with open mouth, when one grab from her powerful jaws seriously 
injures, if it does not at once kill, the youngster. Unless immediate steps are 
taken to remove the cause of this trouble, the pigs soon die for want of food, 
and the sow’s udder becomes distended with milk and inflammation:of it follows. 
