PRODUCING PIG FEED.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 219, 14 August 1940, Page 12

PRODUCING PIG FEED.

THE “CENTRE STY.” Visitors to Wimbledon marvel at the glorious turf that is tended so carefully by a small army of attendants who cherish each blade of grass. Those velvet lawns that knew the dynamic feet of Wilding, .Brookes, Tilden, Eacoste, Mdlie. Lenglen. and many another famous star of the tennis world are going-to have a further experience. That hallowed turf is going to be mutiliated by the less romantic but much more utilitarian feet of hundreds of baconer pigs, states the Wellington District Pig Council. It must have broken the heart of the English Lawn Tennis Club to make this decision and certainly the men who tended the courts will never smile again. There is one consolation, however;, grazing pigs are great improvers of soil fertility and after this war the grass will grow there as it never did before.

The fact that those. responsible for Wimbledon have deemed it necessary to break ■up one of England’s most famous sports fields and use it for pig production is one of iT.c most striking reminders that we in New Zealand could be given lor Britain’s need for pig meat and the urgency of New Zealand’s task in supplying greatly increased quantities of bacon. But New Zealand cannot fulfil hoi obligations to the Mother Country unless we have more feed for our pigs after Christmas, when milk supplies will bo on the decline. The dairy farmers can grow roots, but those are not enough. Essentially their purpose is' for the wintering of store pigs. Tho vital need is fattening food, and barley ranks very high in this category. Barley is perhaps the most needed crop that can bo grown this year. Thousands of acres have been promised, but this is not enough, for tens of thousands of acres are required. Any farm that is naturally suited for growing barley is not pulling its weight unless it has a considerable area in this crop. Farmers are not being asked to plough up their tennis lawns. They are just being asked to turn over some of the lower producing pasture on their farms and to put it into a crop which will mean satisfaction for themselves and more bacon for Britain. _ Just as Britain’s need for bacon is urgent, so then is New Zealand’s need for barley equally as pressing. The dairy farmers of this country cannot be blamed for not increasing baconer output if their fellow farmers who are able to do so do not provide the all-important barley so necessary as a supplement for declining milk supplies. Broadly speaking. every two bushels of barley the farmer grows will bring another store pig to bacon weight. ~ Think of Wimbledon, the District Pig Council adds. Think or that turf pugged by the cutting feet of pigs. Think of Britain facing the stark horror of total war during the cold, grey months of winter that lie ahead. Think of our own security and (hen cast your eyes about your farm to decide just where barley shall be grown this year.