FOOD FOR PIGS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.".] SIR,—Although one of the has-beens, having had nearly sixty years' experience in the breeding of pure-teed stock, winning some two thousand five hundred prizes and exporting pigs of my own breeding to forty-five foreign countries and colonies, yet I still take a keen interest in all questions relating to pigs. I quite agree with the advice given in your footnote to the letter of Mr. C. R. Freeman, but not with his advice to plant maize to be fed in a green state to pigs. I found green maize unsuitable for pigs. During the whole period of my farming I had several acres of Lucerne and found it of the greatest possible assistance in the feeding of my pure-bred pigs, which for many years numbered about six hundred head. The seed is best sown towards the end of April or in the beginning of the month of May. About twenty pounds of seed should be drilled in drills ten inches apart. Some persons drill the seed in a growing crop ef corn. I prefer to drill it alone, as the land can then be kept free from weeds. It should not be grazed the first year; indeed the lees it is fed the better. Mowing for green fodder or hay will preserve the plant for a greater number of years. The difficulty in growing lucerne on some soils can be removed by thorough under-draining. Lucerne dislikes stagnant water. The reports from pig-breeders of some four or five years' experience of their discovery of the system of pasturing pigs in grassfields and woodlands have caused much amusement amongst the old hands who like myself have for many years practised this system, which is as old as the hills. One of the greatest mistakes made by pig-keepers, as by many other people, has been the departure from the systems prescribed by Nature.—I am,
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