110 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Ava., 1898. 
from the floor and wall round the pen, and use as little bedding for the first week as 
possible, so that when the sow lies down the young pigs will not get crushed against 
the wall, the rail acting as a guard. Wean gradually, as soon as you notice the 
young ones are inclined to feed, say at about three weeks. Give them some milk or 
pollard and water in a shallow trough, and let the sow out for an hour or two. They 
will soon learn to feed, and the run out will do the sow good. As they come on, feed 
well and gradually increase the sow’s liberty until the young ones are six or seven 
weeks old. In this way they never seem to fecl the weaniug that has been going on. 
Dry the sow off, and in about three or five days put her back to the boar. 
Marketing.—This depends entirely on the situation, locality, and conveniences 
you have. If you have a handy market, such as we have in Toowoomba, where there 
are always plenty of buyers for good suckers and stores. I maintain it pays the 
breeder better to sell his stock young than keep them on to fatten. here is no 
animal you can sell quicker than a pig, and a man with twenty good breeding sows 
on a farm can make a very comfortable turn-over out of them. On the other hand, 
if you have abundance of .waste food of a fattening nature, it will pay you to turn 
that food into markeiable pork. The young pigs will require to be kept growing 
rapidly, and will want exercise and attention. It will not do to keep them penned up 
until they are big enough to fatten. Give them the run of a lucerne paddock, stubble, 
corn paddock, or a good rich swampy patch, with a dry shed to camp in. When 
sufficiently grown put them in pens and top off, and you should have no difficulty in 
fading) a market for them. 
The pig industry is only in its infancy, and there is big money init. I am sorry 
to say that may show committees do not offer sufficient inducements in their schedules 
in the pig classes. The number of pigs shown are very few, and in many cases the 
committees are to blame. Jam afraid, gentlemen, my paper has been rather long, but 
the subject is one that I hope ere long will be a very large and thriving industry in our 
fair colony, and one that may turn in, in the near future, the almighty dollar as it has 
done in America. 
Mr. T. Wurexey then read the following paper, by Mrs. Lance Rawson, 
of Hunter’s Farm, Rockhampton, on— 
POULTRY. 
Up to the present time, poultry-farming as a separate industry has received very 
little, if indeed any, attention from the powers that be—so little, in fact, that the 
subject was not mentioned at all when this Conference on agricultural matters was 
first decided upon. Some of you present may reply, and possibly with some justice, 
that poultry hardly comes within the meaning of the term “agriculture.” Idonot know 
under what heading it should be classed if not that, unless it be domestic, and obviously 
that would be incorrect. However, to whatever class the subject belongs, I am 
exceedingly obliged to the Minister (or whoever it is who arranges such matters) for 
his courtesy to poultry generally, and myself in particular, in allowing it to be 
included as one of the subjects for a paper. I think I may say, without being 
accused of “blowing” (to use one of our most expressive terms), that whatever has 
been done for poultry in Queensland, has been done by myself. For the last sixteen 
years I have been doing my utmost to induce those people who have small means— 
selectors, farmers, and even young people—to take up poultry-farming with a view 
to money-making, and the fact that the average number of letters (containing 
guises to which I reply) per annum is considerably over 400, says something 
or my success. Out of this number there are over twenty young people, 
both boys and girls, who are earning pocket money, and who are a sort of society 
or club in themselves under the title of “Mrs. Lance Rawson’s pupils.” Most 
of them are earning good pocket money, though it has not al/ been smooth sailing, 
and just a few have failed al'ogether, in most cases through getting tired of it. All 
members write to me every three months to report progress, or oftener if necessary 
and they want advice, and to each other once amonth. In this way the younger 
members learn from the others, and I hope to develop some successful poultry- 
keepers by-and-by. But Iam not inferring that poultry-farming is an occupation 
for children. That the young people can take an interest in it to the extent of making 
it a source of pocket money, should be one of the arguments in its favour, I think, 
But one has only to look at the big returns from eggs alone credited to several foreign 
countries to be convinced that there is money in it, and that we in Queensland are 
ignoring another industry that might help out a large number of our selectors who at 
present find it a hard matter to keep their heads above water, Iam indebted toa 
lady friend who has been ev cali: through Hurope for the following figures 
