Important to Fanners.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 240, 15 February 1894, Page 2

Important to Fanners.

The following circular has been issued by the Intermarine Supply Company (represented by Messrs Vecht and Stockvis) and for -whom Mr John B. Morgan is the Wellington agent. The Company announce having made arrangements with the Christchurch Meat Company, Islington Works, for the killing of their pigs and they are now prepared to receive pigs in any quantity. The circular reads : — " As regards feeding of pigs I can only go a little more into details, but as there is very little art required in the matter, I think it will be sufficient to put the settlers on tie right Irjick. They will find out for themselves, each according to their particular farm or dairy, what is most suitable for them. It should be generally known that a pig will grow best if it is not over-fed with heavy (grain) food in the first five months of its existence. Plenty of green food, grass, • clover, lucerne, or similar things should be its fare. The dairyman who has skim milk can let it run into the paddock, but if he has a large quantity of skim milk he will find it better to have rather a few pigs more than he thinks he has milk for if he has a decent large run or fair supply of green stuff for them. Skim milk will support and even fatten a larger quantity of pigs than one could imagine. However, this I must leave to the judgment of the farmer himself, who knows the character of the soil and the quality of the grass. He can also daily see how the pigs thrive, and get a few stores more if there is room for them. 'The padpocks should not be too large— 2o acres is the model paddock. If it can be chosen in low land with a pool or creek in it, so much the better. If the clover can be mown and brought to the pigs it is found better than to drive them into the clover field. However, plenty drive the pigs into the clover field as it is, By the time the clover is finished the root crop should come in, Boots should be largely grown by pig farmers and also stored for winter food* They store well, and summer and winter a farmer should have pigs to deliver, continuing to receive cash in every season. The roots, which may be of any sort — mangel wurzel, beet, turnips, potatoes, artichokes, etc.— follow upon the clover as a good flesh and weight, making food. If roots can be boiled their value is much enhanced. If the paddock be occasionally changed so that there is always grass for the pigs, the roots will go much further, and it will be found that a large quantity can be stored. This I presume the farmer knows how to do. Holes are dag in the ground with some straw underneath -and on the top, covered with earth. Now this all holds good for the general farmer and butter-maker. The cheesemaker has to have a smaller paddock, so that the pigs do not get too much grass. At the same time he must get some roots or potatoes, which should be boiled and every day given to them before they get the whey. The starch formed by the cooked food will counteract all evil effect of the acid of the whey, but it is a great safeguard against gripes to give them some dry meal or sharps before the whey as well. A cheese factory can turn out in tins way a large quantity of healthy weighty pigs. Now for all classes of pigs, whether fed on one thing or another, this must be the final diet. When the pig approaches 120 lb. to 180 lb. in weight it should be driven into a very small paddock or stye with troughs \n it, and then it should have for from 14 to 20 days only hard food— beans, peas, or any sort of corn or oats will do — and then be sent to my agent. If the farmer goes into this matter on a faMy large scale he will find the results of his labour compare favourably with those of any other produce, and his revenue will surpass his expectations.. The breed of pigs that makes the most heavy carcases is the cross Berkshire and Yorkshire. Some care is required as to the looking after of breeding sesra, as some will lie on their yoßng, while others will sometimes eat their progeny. With 100 acres of gocxtland well conducted one should be aWe to turn out 500 pigs during one year, which at, say, 35s each, is £875. To turn out \ this quantity 25 good breeding sows aro sufficient. ■