PIG BREEDING AND FEEDING.

Otago Witness, Issue 1890, 10 February 1888, Page 7

PIG BREEDING AND FEEDING.

Those who read the intercolonial market reports published regularly in the commercial columns of the Witness cannot have failed to observe that New Zealand bacon and hams almost invariably realise top quotations in the Sydney, Adelaide, and Brisbane markets. Highly creditable as this is to the feeders and curers in the province of Canterbury and the Northern provinces, and profitable to all concerned as the trade must have proved— else it would nofc have developed into the dimensions it has attained,-- -it is therefore surprising that Southern farmers have not yet "regarded the pig as an essential element in farm economy." It is all the more difficult to account for the circumstance, because in no part of the colony can summer food for pigs be provided at so. little cost and with such certainty as in Otago and Southland ; while, owing to variable weather during haryest seasons, there is year after year a considerable proportion of hadly.damaged grain which the pig only can turn to profitable account. It is true that in some localities South there are exceptional farmers who devote some attention to the feeding of "baconers," and have profited by the enterprise ; but these individuals wisely keep their own counsel, or are remarkably loth to divulge their experience in, fattening pigs for market. To Qne extensive farmer^ who has for several seasons fattened, of? a. large number of pigs purchased aat stores Bhqrtly before the harvest %icoG % questions \vere addressed last autumn asking information as to. the results of his experience in the business. In declining to comply with the request he explained that he was " busy at the time purchasing all the damaged grain obtainable in the surrounding localities." On gubseempsfe jnouiry it wag ascertained tjj^t fy? ptee $m ty hiQ> for broken, dis-

coloured, or sprouted wheat was Is per bushel. Hethereforeastheseasonscomeround follows the example set him by American farmers, of whom it is said " they have simply discovered a method of putting 15 bushels of corn into a three-bushel measure, and so transport it in a manufactured state to market." In a little pamphlet written by Mr Henry F. Moore, of Frome, Somerset, it is stated : " There is no animal on the farm that requires such simple treatment, while as a machine for the manufacture of meat it has no equal for speed or for economy in the material used." As the result of strictly conducted experiments at Eothamstead, Sir J. B. Lawes unhesitatingly stated that " the pig is the best, quickest, and cheapest meat-mak-ing machine in the world." While such statements from, recognised authorities will scarcely be disputed, the majority of our farmers elect to sell slightly damaged grain at nominal prices rather than feed it to pigs and thereby market it profitably on the farm. In innumerable instances the. net retnrns during winter for even fair qualities of oats did not exceed Is 2d per bushel on the farm, while the average for potatoes could not have exceeded 25s per ton ; yet these figuros were accepted, because " when pork comes down to 3d per lb it will not pay to feed pigs," and such is the common belief held by farmers. Experiments both at Kothamstead and in America have shown that a bushel of 601b of maize is capable of conversion into 121b of pork. Last season maize could be purchased in the English markets at 2s 6d per bushel. Now, allowing a liberal estimate of two bushels of oats as a food equivalent to one bushel o^ maize, we should have 121b of pork worth, at 3d per lb, 3s, and at a aost of 2s 4d at the outside for the oats on the farm. ■ The estimated value in England of skim milk fed to pigs is Id per gallon when pork is worth Gd per lb. With pork at 3d in the colony, the milk given to pig's' would'return inUhe form" of pork'^d per gallon, • and it is doubtful' if calf -rearing would pay .'as well. r The argument commonly used that there is but a limited demand for pork or bacon is scarcely tenable when proximity to and the prices ruling in the intercolonial markets are considered. But these apart the fact must be admitted that really prime streaky wellcured bacon is never in over supply, and always brings fair prices in the local markets. The local consumption of bacon would be vastly larger were a prime article obtainable at a moderate price ; but that offered, and in over-abundance, is generally too fat, not streaky, and over-salted or otherwise spoiled in the curing. Housekeepers will not buy •bacsn; half of which would waste in cooking. Like butter, 90 per cent, of the bacon sent in from the country districts is faulty in every respect, and people will have none of it. The present taste, not only in the colonies but in all the best markets of the world, is for good size sides of bacon weighing some 601b, and with a large proportion of lean. The feeder of baconers must, in selecting stores, choose the animals that will under a judicious plan of feeding give streaky, wellgrained bacon. Present requirements and tastes point to the urgent necessity of farmers paying increased attention to the breeding of useful pigs — " not such as are termed in America rail-splitters, nor the short, podgy, thin-skinned, hairless pigs which abound in some of the Southern counties of England; but those with long bodies and deep sides, covered with hair, not course or curly, and having heads of medium length, as pigs with very long heads are as difficult to fatten quickly at an early age as is any other animal, even one of the genus homo with a long neck and head."