362 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 May, 1898. 
Dairying. 
PIGS ON A DAIRY FARM. 
Ar a recent meeting of the Murray Bridge Branch of the Agricultural 
Bureau, Mr. W. Lehmann read the following paper on the above subject :— 
Rearing and fattening pigs ona dairy farm is a profitable undertaking 
for the farmer, providing it is carried out on the best principles possible: 
otherwise it may turn out a useless waste of food and labour. Pizs consume 
all waste on the farm, such as skim milk, fallen fruit, unsaleable potatoes, 
drake, &c.—articles, which, as a rule, have no selling value, but if fed to pigs 
can be made to turn out as profitable as the priucipal products of the farm. 
To begin with, you must choose pigs that have not been starved in their 
youth, and should be a cross with the Berkshire, or nearly pure Berkshire, if 
you have an abundance of feed. A Berkshire boar, mated with a well-shaped 
sow, suitable for breeding, not necessarily of any pure bread, would produce a 
good class of pigs. The sties should be roomy and comfortable, facing east, to 
ensure warmth of a cold winter morning, so that the sun when rising would 
shine into the part where they have their lair. This is essential for young 
pigs, as they suffer from the cold. A yard could also be constructed to allow 
for exercise, as small wet sties will cause pigs to become cramped and 
crippled in their legs. : 
It is also necessary for the farmer to grow certain kinds of products to 
help to fatten pigs with, besides the waste, such as barley or peas, or anything 
that will give a good return in his particular district, and would not exhaust 
the soil to the same extent that growing wheat would. Heavy crops of barley 
have been grown in and around this district in good seasons. This could be 
stored in barns, and lasts for several years for pigs’ food, and would do away 
with buying expensive food in bad seasons. A successful farmer in this 
district purchased a well-bred Berkshire boar, a prizetaker, at the Mount 
Barker Show, the progeny being a nice, evenly-grown class of pigs. When 
the young pigs are about five months old they are shut up and fattened on 
skim milk and barley; at seven months they are fit for market, and weigh from 
100 Ib. to 140 Ib., and, being well fed and fine pigs, he gets top prices. The 
more careless farmer lets his pigs roam about in grass paddocks, feeds them 
with skim milk when he has got some, and manages to get some fat when the 
grass is green and his cows are all in milk; but, being grass-fed pigs, they 
make poor quality bacon, and when their heads are cut off very little is left of 
them; consequently the bacon-curers shun his pigs, and he has a difficulty in 
getting rid of them. The unthrifty farmer shuts his pigs up in a small, badly 
protected sty; he bundles them all in, large and small; consequently the larger 
ones get nearly all the feed, and the small ones starve. Having been informed 
that such a farmer had some fat bacon pigs to dispose of, I went to inspect 
them, and found them up to their knees in muck, the larger ones feasting on 
part of a fresh-born calf, the smaller ones turning over one of their dead 
mates, looking for a part to begin on. Coming there about feeding time, - 
the owner was about to give them their midday food, which consisted of two 
kerosene tins of swamp water with a few handsful of pollard added. He never 
succeeded in getting them fat, but had to kill and eat them himself to save 
buying more pollard. Before getting through all of them, he and his wife 
were laid up for weeks with acute indigestion.—Adelaide Observer. 
