CAMBRIDGE FARMERS'

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1270, 19 August 1880, Page 2

CAMBRIDGE FARMERS'

The following is the essay delivered by Captain Runciman at Monday's meeting of the Club, with the discussion which ensued thereon :—: —

The Hearing and Management of Swine. Mr Vicfe-President and Gentlemen: "The subject , which. l have chosen to attraot your attention for a few minutes is the rearing and management of swine ; a class of farming which, in my opinion, has been very seriouely neglectel in Waikato — &t any rate it has not been gone into in, a systematic manner. lam persuaded, in fact, certain, that pigfarming, where circumstances admit, would prove a much more profitable industry than many other things we undertake on the farm. Pig-farming is a subject to which I have given a good deal of attention for many yeara; but, like many of my fellow-settlers, I have never attained to any great success. It has been a matter of circumstances in my case ; not that it did not pay, or that the business was unprofitable. I am of opinion the non- success of many who have attempted pig-farming is principally owing to the want of proper conveniences to grow suitable food. An abundance of suitable food is one of the principals in pig-farming. And another cause is a bad and unprofitable breed of pigs ; although in some cases I know farmers who have started with pigs of a very good quality, but, through misfortune with wild pigs or other neglect, the stock very soon degenerated, from the general aid usual custom of allowing the pigs to run about in the fern or bush and fields, and breed just aa soon as they like. They very soon become wild and unmanageable. As most of you .110 aware, none of our quadrupeds degenerate so quickly as the pig, thiough breeding too soon anrl braeding 1 in and in. But with a good breed, properly attended to, and proper conveniences for managing them as they ought to be, wo have no animal that is so profitable to the fanner. With the exception ot' the original cost of a sow, or sow and boar, and a fresh boar when occasion requires there is no expense, for the pig is much more prolific than any other of our domestic animals, and c msequcntly the requisite number is much less expensively kept up. I will now state wh.it I have found to bs the most profitable pig, and which was moat marketable either alive or in hams and bacon, and which consequently commands the best price ; la ray experience, it is a pig bred from a Berk-Jihe sow got by a fine boar of small breed. The Berkshire sow makes by far the best mother, aucl as a general rule products a greater number of pigs at each litter, and rears the.n much better. The sow of the small breed in general makes a very bad mother ; they are poor milkers, and the better they are bred the worse mothers they make ; they are of such a fu'tty nature, and so lazy. But, nevertheless, the man who goes in for pig farming with the class of pig I have endeavored to describe, must at least keep his small breed pure and distinct for the purpose of rearing boars. This is one of the greatest difficulties. I kept one sow for more than six years for that purpose, and she seldom reared above three pigs at a litter. There was no possibility of keeping her poor ; she was always fat ond lazy, and she used to smother the pigs, and had scarcely any milk for them. I have sometimes succeeded in rearing four or five if I had anothor sow farrowing about the same time, wheu I could manage to put some of her pigs on the other sow. No man can buy a boar with any degree of certainty that he has «?ot what will suit hifl purpose if he <l»>©,j kuow fur ,'j.fc least throe or four generations how he was bred. The pig-, bred from the Berk-hire how and the fine small boar aro, as a general rule, very piotty and well proportioned, a' d if fairly dealt with in the way of food, they attain the mo>t marketable size, vi/ 5., from lSOlbs. to 22(>lbs. at from twelve to fifteen months old. They are easier fed, easier kept, and they arc larger and quieter thau the Jsorkshiio. The Berk:hire, when running out, wants to know too much ; it wants to know, and will know, if there id a possibility, what is in the next field, m, well as the one allotted to it ; and, also, it wa • t--> to know -what is under the ground as well as over. Now the small -bred and the half-bred do not give that annoyance if they aro f.iirly dealt with. Tbey aro much finer in the bono, and (ho me it is equally well mixed with lcm, as the Berkshire. Ther.e is a pig in America with a very high reputation called PollonChina. Somo wood-cuts I have seen are certainly most bcauthul, and by the account of that pig I am convinced it would .suit us here admirably. The next point I will touch upon is the management and feeding. What I have found to be the most profitable is to allow tho how and pigs to run about on the clover and gra.»e paddock till the pigs are from ni' c to twelve months old, beinj careful to koo the mother always run;'-, so that she cannot root, and. tho yonnt> o >C) rarely ever attempt it only -\\h>n the mother teaches them. But never up^n any pretext to allow the boar to run out. Feed them daily with a few potatoes mangolds, turnips, a few peas or a little mai/e, or anything of that kind that may be convenient. ' The greater the variety of food, the better the pigs Avill thrive. One single pint of maize each clay will keep 50 pigs so quiet, that they "would follow you anywhere. Then when about 12 months old take them into the sty and give them as much boiled or steamed food as they can consume of potatoes, mangolds, turnips, carrots, peas, barley or refuse wheat, and where cows are kept, add all the skimmed milk and also a little sharps, and allow the food to stand at least three clays after cooking, to get well fermented. Each pig will put "on flesh at the rate of from 1} to 21b per clay. For the last few months I would recommend that the grain given them be uncooked ; it tends to harden the flesh, and in from two to three months the pig will be as fat as required, the clover taste entirely gone and the meat firm, good, and beautifully white. What can also be done to very great advantage and profit is to sow a few acres of peas. I much prefer the "Blue Prussian ;" it is a very prolific pea, and ripens earlier than the grey or partridge pea, consequently is not so subject to the ravages of the caterpillar ; and further it is not so strong and heating as as the grey pea, and not being a very tall grower, it does very well sown broadcast. When ripe, harvest just sufficient of the peas you may require for seed, or what you think the number of pigs you have could not consume witkin three months. Turn all the pigs you intend for bacon into the field amongst the peas and within 3 months they will be all fat and ready for the butcher, and the meat has lost all its do very and fishy taste. It may be considered that the pigs u ould make a great waste, of the peas, but such is not the case ; they eat them clean up, even if there are a few chipped and grown a little through wet weather, though, at that time of the year it is generally pretty dry. With the exception of a little pea straw, which is very easily raked together, they leave the land in splendid order for grass or what crop is to follow. This system saves all the expenses of harvesting, carrying, stacking, and thatching, consequently making the pigs pay better. The great cause ot Waikato failing to produce firstclass hams and bacon has been, and is tho

want of proper feeding .A pig wift' grow big and fat, simply feeding- upon clover and grass; but the meat when killed is often quite as yellow as beef, And flabby, soft, and oily, and tastes fishy. It becomes almost immediately rusty, and there is scarcely any chance of keeping jumpers out of it, which is not the case when fed as I have before described. I am persuaded from my own experience, that were some of our farmers, who can make the conveniences, to turn their attention to pig-farming in a systematic manner they would find it pay better than many things they do. Can any common sense man tell wjby, or _say that Waikato will not produce as good hams and bacon as Canterbury if it were systematically gune about ? The greatest secret for tho production of good hams and bacon, is in tho feeding ; until that is attended to in a very different manner than has generally been the case heretofore we will not be able to rival the notoriety of Canterbury's hams and bacon. Now that tho fern to a vtry great extent is exterminated from the large area of our lands, we will be able to grow grain much more satisfactorily ,and such being the case \ the district will be able to produce a very different article than has been produced previously as a general rule. Potatoes, also, which form no mean part of suitable food for pigs, grow as well here as in any part of New Zealand. We have also sufficient cold weather, so that there need be no trouble in curing the bacon. It is realy painful, and a standing disgrace to us, that what ever grocer's hhop you enter you are confronted with Canterbury hams and bacon. Where it a something we could produce only at a loss I would say by all msans use Canterbury, but being fully certain that it pays, and pays well, to grow and make it, lam certain it would bo greatly to the Waikato farmers interest to turn their attention in that direction. To show how largely the American fanners go in for hog raising, I faw in the American Agn*nLu'i\t of January, February, and March of this year, th it one city alone (New York) disposed of no lehs a number than 137,537 hogs in January, and 128,237 ho^n in February, aud 124,718 hcg-. in Mat-ck. Mr A. A. Fantham quite agreed with Captain Runciman that pig farming was more profitable than anything. Nothing, he was convinced, would pay so well. He had tried everything, and had failed, and he would now go into the roaring and fattening of pigs. While agreeing generally with the essayist, he took exception to one or two things. First, he disagreed with Captain Runcinian's selection of the kind of animal which they should adopt. He remembered hearing one of the firm of Connell and Green, the great bacon manufacturers of Canterbury, advising the farmers of that Province to go in for Berkshii*3S solely. The meat from such pigs had more lean, and was less oily than that of the smaller breeds, and would fetch more money. He considered the Berkshire was much more profitable, because it could be killed, fat, when about six or seven months old. Farrowed in the spring they could run on the grass till the approach of winter when they could be styed and quickly fattened. In the South Island he had gone into pig farming to some extent, and he remembered -that ho- killed n. pig, only 13 weeks old, which weighed 1091bs. He would certainly advise people to go in for the best Berkshire ; he did not hold with crossing the breed of pigs at all. He agreed that peas would constitute the best food for pigs, and ho believed they could be giown very successfully in Waikato The "Prussian blue" was by far the best, as the great htght to which tho partridge pea attained rendered it peculiarly liable to the influence of wet weather, lie did not fall in with the idea of turning the pigs into the Avhole crop, and for this reason : that the I peas ripening about J anuary would he all gone in March or April, which would be about the worse time in the year for hog killing. The proper season for bacon curing was in June and July, and in order to make the food last till that time ho would recommend that at least half the crop be harvested and given to the pigs when the standing portion should have been consumed. J>y following out this plan he believed they wouk secure much finer bacon. Captain hunciinan had not said whether or not he would +ako the jsoms into sfcys b'.'fo c fai rowing; he presumed he would. Mr Fantham then proceeded to dilate on the necessity for care being taken of the sows after farrowing and the necessity for speying the young sows not required for breeding purposes. Messrs. R. Reynolds and E. B. Walker, asked the essayist's opinion with regard to maize as a food for pigs. Captain Runciman replied to the remarks made upon his essay. He did not care to dispute the high authority quoted by_ Mr Fantham, but he based his preference for the smaller breed of pigs upon the fact that they were much more easily managed than the Berkshire. The latter had to be kept styed continuously, and to do so meant great expense. He quite agreed in keeping the breed as pure as possible, because the better the breed the more fat they put on. He would select a eross between the Berkshire and Chinese. With the other remarks of Mr Fantham he quite agreed. In answer to Mr Reynolds, he would say that although he had tried maize it had not been of his own growing, because of all the crops grown here it was the most expensive. He did not, however, dispute its good feeding qualities. If pigs were fed for, say, three months, he would recommend that the food be cooked for the first two, and given raw for the third. There was no comparison between maize and peas. In addition to being much more expensive to grow, it left the land in bad condition, while peas were quite opposite in their effect on the soil. On the motion of Mr Clark, a.

cordial vote of 'thanks was passed to Captain Rtfftdi man for his valuable and instructive essay.