1Dec.,1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 587 
2 PIGS AND THEIR MANAGEMENT.—No. 1, 
__ Att who are interested in the pig industry should carefully read a paper pre- 
a say by Mr. W. R. Robinson, of Toowoomba, for the Agricultural adBasters 
erence held at Mackay during the last week of June, 1899. Mr. Robinson 
is one of the highest authorities, if not the highest, on this important subject 
in the colony, and farmers cannot do better than follow the excellent advice 
iven in his lectures and papers and in his little book on “Pigs and their Manage- 
ment,” published in 1896. F 
The following is the substance of one of his lectures, read at the Mackay 
Conference :—* The industry is making rapid strides; it has come to stay, anil 
by careful management it promises to be one of the largest and most pro- 
fitable industries in this the garden of Australia. It has not been bounty fed, 
neither has it asked support from the Government, Throughout the colonies 
the public are daily learning to consume more pork products, and why? Simply 
because they are getting them put before them in a Bethe form and more tastily 
got up. In America the consumption of pork products is something enormous, 
to say nothing of their export trade; that in the year 1883 exceeded all others 
if excepting wheat and cotton), amounting to £21,000,000, Now, if America can 
do this enormous business, surely we Australians should be able to capture some 
portion of so protitable a trade. We have ourchilling establishments, fast lines of 
ocean-going steamers carrying cargoes of frozen products, and markets within 
easy reach of our shores. The Cape should be a fairly remunerative market. 
_ “Tnotice that a shipment of cattle from our ports realised £32 per head. 
There should be room for a few shipments of pork there. Shipments of hams 
_ and bacon are regularly being made to West Australia, Tasmania, Batavia, and 
all our Northern ports. These are not pork-producing areas, aud not likely to 
_ be. as the climatic conditions are not suitable; therefore there is every prospect of 
the industry forging ahead. There is also room, even in our town (Toowoomba), 
_ for a fresh pork and small-goods trade. The demand is good for well-got-up 
marketable goods. There is no place here where one can buy a decent joint of 
_ pork, pork sausages, pork pies, and other porcine dainties. These things only 
require putting before the people in an appetising form, and there would be no 
_searcity of customers. Owing to there being no fresh pork trade here, porkers 
are not a profitable class of pig for our farmers, as they must either sell them as 
_ forward stores to their neighbours or keep them until fit for the bacon-eurer. 
_ ‘This may not always be convenient when feed is short. ee ae 
“Tne Prick.—This is the all important point to the farmer and pig-raiser. 
Well, pigs are like any other marketable commodity —they must fluctuate in 
according to supply and demand. During the past 12 months farmers 
have been receiving a top price for their pigs, and in many cases, owing to their 
being fed on soft food, there has been a great shrinkage in the eured products, 
consequently loss of weight and loss to the bacon-eurer Grain-fed pigs are 
always worth more than milk and slop fed pigs, and if the past season had 
given a good maize crop, pigs would have been considerably cheaper, but at the 
same time would have paid the farmer as well. Take America. With their 
enormous grain crops, ‘tied get on an average 27s. 6d. to 30s, for prime baconers, 
whieh means a pig not less than 180 to 2001b., whereas here we have been 
“abled 33s. and up to 45s. for pigs only 120 to 1501b., clearly showing that the 
merican farmer prefers selling his cheap grain products in the form of live 
: ata and being «a pretty wideawake gentleman, knows which pay him best. 
ow, with our favourable climate, cheap lands, and everything in our favour, 
we should, in the near future, be formidable competitors. At present the 
Sydney market may be said to control the Australian markets, as most of the 
southern colonies buy largely there, and Sydney buys largely there, beth in a 
live and cured form. I have been trying to induce southern farmers to operate 
here, but lately there has been no profit to them, our prices being equal, and in 
-xome cases better than theirs. May, June, and July generally show a fall in 
?p owing to the rush of fat pigs, in consequence of maize and pumpkin 
_erops being harvested, 
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