PEDIGREE PIGS

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3286, 4 March 1926, Page 6

PEDIGREE PIGS

BREEDING BROUGHT TO A FINE ART. WONDERFUL PROGRESS IN BRITAIN. In no country in the world has the breeding of pedigree live stock been brought to sucii a fine art as it has in Great Britain. Climate, the comparative smallness of the country, and keen competition between breeders, have all been factors contributing to this success.- British farmers were the pioneers in organising agricultural shows and village fairs, and for centuries it has been one of the pleasures of breeders to take their best animals to fairs and shows and compete for prizes. Possibly the most important cause of Great Britain’s success in the breedings of live stock is the systematic way in which, during the last century, the records of the pedigrees and performances of all the best animals were kept. Breed Societies published herd books containing the official records of the animals and looked after the interests of the breeds. In the case of pigs the records extend back to forty or fifty years from the present time. Many able* breeders have spent their, lives evolving British pigs. They began by careful selection of breeding stock, and then by eliminating all the pigs which seemed to be inferior to their parents, and by breeding the very best they formed a type. Having arrived at this point they usually fixed the type by inbreeding for a few generations, and so established definite stages in the improvement of their pigs. Then they would select again, and repeat the process, and, in fact, arc still doing so. Inbreeding, for anyone but a skilled breeder, is playing with fire, no doubt, but when it is a success it. is the . quickest and best means of improving and fixing a type. The National Pig Breeders’ Association of Great Britain reports th & record number of 429 pedigree export certificates have been granted since the beginning of 1925, wholly in respect of Large White, Middle White and Tamworth pigs shipped overseas, says the Scottish Farmer. A few of the countries to which the animals have been consigned are Russia, South Africa, Japan, Hungary, Latvia, Czechoslovakia, Jugo Slavia (and almost all the mid-European States), Bolivia, Australia, France, Germany, and the Straits Settlements. Probably the most important of the transactions was the purchase by the Soviet Government of some 200 Large White pigs for distribution in Russia with a view to improving the type of local breeds. As much as 250 guineas was paid for an 18-months-old boar, while another pig .of the same ago realised IBOgns, '