A MUNICIPAL PIG FARM.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3143, 13 November 1922, Page 7

A MUNICIPAL PIG FARM.

The Council of the city of Lansing, Michigan, U.S.A., has "gone one bettor" in the matter of municipal enterprises. It has added to the production of pork to its activities, and the venture, besides being of great sanitary. value to the city, has proved highly profitable. The idea was conceived as a means of getting rid of the city's garbage, and to give effect to it a farm was purchased at some distance. The residents in the neighborhood stronglv objected to the establishment of this pig farm, and the city was made defendant in a suit filed in the Circuit Court, but this was finally dropped. The whole business is conducted on an elaborate scale, more than 1500 pigs having been occupants of the farm at one time. Every up-to-date device for preserving sanitary conditions has been adopted, and smell from the farm has been reduced to a minimum, while it is hoped shortly to banish what remains. Wo read that there are a number of white houses on the farm, while being adopted as symbolic of sanitation, and the establishment has won the admiration of visitors who went there to inspect the plant. One of the buildings at the piggery is a modern washhouse and drier, where all garbage cans are thoroughly cleansed. There are large feeding houses, sleeping houses, and stockyards, and to make the pig city complete a hog hospital is on the grounds, and to this hogs which are taken ill or are injured are taken to have their ailments diagnosed • and treated and their injuries attended. All the hogs are immuned against any of the diseases, and they thus maintain a uniform state of health. These, healthy and municipally-owned hogs are said to be among the best put on tho market, and naturally they bring good prices, many of the fattest being sent to the Detriot markets. Lansing is proud of its piggery, which solved the garbage problem and returned a profit to the city's contingent fund of €2OO and more a month, one month giving a profit of £IOOO. I\\ addition to feeding the hogs, plans are being made to turn, some other refuse from the garbage into fertiliser, and this will add to the profits. The records of Lansing's achievement have stirred other cities to action, and the example of the pqrk-producmg Council of Lansing is likely to be widely followed.