The Farm.

Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 11, 16 June 1894, Page 6

The Farm.

HINTS TO PIG-BREEDERS. An authority on pig-breeding condemns the practice of giving the breeding sow only a small quantity of bedding. “ I find there is no better plan,” he says, “than to let ber ikiry herself; in a pile of straw sjid ‘let her alppe for. a time. I, liave lost wholelitters by trying to be good' to them. A day or two' after she has had her pigs, she should be given all the food she will eat (she should have drink all the time), and there is no time young pigs can be grown so cheaply as when they are on the sow and feed through the sow. When a week or two old, they may have. access to some place where they can get some skim milk or other slop, and a little whole wheat and oats will help them along; but if the sow be fed liberally in a rather wide, flat trough* they will soon learn to eat, and it will be quite an ‘ ease ’ on the sow. Young pigs should be let run where they can get at the fresh earth. They want to have a good clean, dry place to sleep in, as damp is more fatal to them, than even cold. Nothing seems to grow young pigs so well as oats, with a little wheat now and then, which is the cheapest feed to be had at present. The most economical way to feed breeding and growing pigs (although it may seem strange to some) is to let them eat the grain out of the sheaf or straw on a good hard clean of ground.”