GLEANINGS,

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1254, 13 July 1880, Page 3

GLEANINGS,

Liver-rot amongst sheep in England has occurred in serious outbreaks after the wet seasons of 1735, 1747, 1765, 1792, 1809, 1817, 1824, 1830, 1853, 1860, and 1879. England's great dependence on the flocks in distant lands for the wool needed in her manufactories is strikingly exhibited in the Board of Trade Returns just issued. During the three months ending with March, England received no less than 151,725,389 cwt of wool from abroad and its'value is stated at £8,590,015. These figures are larger than those for either of the two preceding years. A brood sow is usually at her best as a producer, in the number and quality of pigs as well as in the secretion of milk, when she is from two to three years old. The number of pigs dropped at a litter will usually increase with each successive litter up to the third or fourth, provided the sow is put to breeding so as to drop her first litter when she is about a year old, as is the custom with most breeders of swine. After the aow reaches four years of age, her powers of gestation usually grow weaker, and she is much less liable to save the pij?s that may be dropped. Like all other general rules, there are exceptions to this, but under ordinary ciroumstances we would not recommend the keeping of brood sows by fanners who are raising hogs for the general market after they reach four years of age,