14 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Jaw., 1900. 
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT OF PIGS. 
An Illinois (U.S.A.) farmer says:—The pig is an automatic combined 
machine for reducing the bulk in grain and enchancing its value; a machine 
that oils itself; a condenser, a manufacturer of ham, bacon, lard, illuminating 
oils, hair brushes, tooth brushes, head cheese, glue, buttons, fertilisers, soaps, 
souse, sausage, and satisfaction. The work of improvement in live stock is never 
done. Do not attach undue importance to popular strains that may be the | 
passing fashion on fancy points, colour of hair, &c., provided you do not get 
outside the colour of the breed. Emphasise especially the vigour of constitution, © 
capacity for digestion, &c. Some close observers believe the process of refining 
in breeds has reached the danger line in lightening the framework. Sturdy, — 
straight limbs and strong, upright feet must be had to enable a pig to stand 
squarely and steadily. Avoid long, slender, pipestem style of legs, ending in 
slim, uncertain ankles and weak feet, together with a failure to carry the meat 
of the ham full and well down towards the hock. Good pigs are not accidentally 
secured, Select your breeding animals early, and get them in proper condition 
for breeding. Large litters of healthy pigs come from healthy parents liberally — 
fed for forming bone and muscle. Observe as vital points the strong arched 
back, the well-sprung ribs, the full heart girth, the broad shoulders and deep 
ham, the strong underpinning, the strong shapely foot. More depends on your 
care of your breeding stock than many suppose. No rule can be laid down as 
to the amount of feed that should be given daily to the boar, the brood sow, or 
the growing pigs. 
RUNNING BOARS WITH SOWS. 
A practice that has a tendency to depreciate the standard of excellence is 
to allow boars liberty to serve sows ad libitum, and to be turned out with the 
herd or confined with a number of sows in a yard. Is excessive service less 
harmful to future offspring of swine than of other live stock? One service, as 
a rule, will give satisfactory results as to the number of vigorous pigs, while, 
when the other system is followed, small litters, dead pigs, deformed pigs are 
the result, but in pig-breeding this is ascribed to bad luck, while the horse- 
breeder would charge it to excessive use of the sire. Build a paddock or yard 
4 or 5 rods: square, with a shanty-like house 7 feet by 8 feet, 7 feet high in 
front, 5 feet to rear, with a door 2} feet by 4 feet high to permit of entrance 
when cleaning it, a half drop or swing door on hinges, attached to the upper 
part, to keep out beating storms and cold, and a tight board fence, high and 
strong, which will prevent teasing the sows, and will also prevent fretting and 
irritating the boar. ‘This often has disastrous results, the boar becoming 
impotent by self-abuse, especially in the case of young sires. 
EARLY MATURITY. 
One of the characteristics or conditions of life of our improved breeds 
which has been brought about by artificial selection and artificial life is that of 
early maturity—that is, cattle, sheep, and pigs attain their full size and 
development and give full return at an earlier age than in former years. This 
tendency has affected even the teeth, and we have these developing in 
considerably shorter times, and thus at earlier ages than was wont, and 
consequently the system of judging the age of these animals by their teeth 
has had to be modified correspondingly with recent years. The daily increase 
in live weight of a fattening ox, sheep, or pig is largest in the earlier stages of 
its existence—that is, the same amount of food will increase its weight more 
quickly when young than when nearing full growth. 
SELECTION OF BREEDING SOWS. 
Mr. John Craig, an English pig-breeder, writes as follows on this subject :— 
In such work as I have had to do in pig-breeding I have found some features 
having a strong tendency to be transmitted ; and as these are practical points, I 
