THE PIG.

Waipa Post, Volume I, Issue 25, 11 July 1911, Page 4

THE PIG.

The New South Wales Department of Agriculture recommends a cross between the middle York boar and Berkshire sow, for breeding for pork best suited to marketing conditions. This pig matures early and has light offal, and there is not much waste as in heavier type. The pig is good all round as a pork producer. An alternative cross is a Berkshire boar and a PolandChina sow; but these have a tendency to produce small litters, and, in consequence, have not come generally into use. Pigs, as porkers, are usually sold when they have attained a live weight of from 60 to 9olb. Mr E. J. Shelton, in charge of the pig-raising department at the Hawkesbury College, advises that the Tamworth boar and Berkshire sow is the best cross for the production of bacon and ham. ( The Tamworth being a lengthy, lean type, introduces these qualities into the more fatty Berkshire; resulting in an evenly streaked bacon, which commands a ready sale. This cross, owing to its not producing superabundant fat, is also specially well adapted to the Australian climatic conditions. One of the most notable changes which have taken place in the farming system of the Victorian wheat belt is the increased attention given to the oat crop. It was formerly thought that oats would not give payable yields in the dry districts, but, partly owing to wetter seasons, and partly to manuring, and the way in which the crop works in rotation with wheat and grazing, it is found that fairly satisfactory yields can be obtained. Where two grain crops are taken off after a fallow it is found that oats do well as the second. In addition to the manure sown with the seed the crop probably benefits from the unused fertiliser put in with the proceeding wheat crop. Another advantage is the value of the oats as pasturage. A good many sheep often ewes and lambs, can be carried in the winter months, and in the spring the stock are taken off, and the crop allowed to mature for grain. The grain, or hay if the crop is not harvested for grain, is being increasingly used for feeding the live stock of the farm.