FOREIGN COMPETITION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2403, 22 March 1900, Page 7

FOREIGN COMPETITION.

(Irish Farmers' Gazelle.)

Not for a long time have we had a more striking illustration of the thoroughness of the manner in which the foreign producers with which the Irish farmer has to compete in the British markets are girding themselves for the struggle which they see before them than that afforded by the receipt in the early part of January of the annual report of the superintendent of the Farmers' Institutes of the province of Ontario. Some years ago, the Canadians found that in order to compete at all successfully with their Irish and Danish rivals in the struggle for supremacy in the British bacon markets, they would have to considerably alter the course previously pursued by them — they would pot only have to substantially change the type of pig which they were then producing, but they would have to considerably modify the systems of feeding followed by them, as the foods which they were giviitg were not found conducive to the production of the quality of bacon at present -in demand in Great Britain. This meant quite a revolution in Canadian pig-breeding systems, but with characteristic transatlantic enterprise they p luckily set to work, and they are now actively engaged in a most determined effort to attain the- end for which they have fo long striven. In order to obtain a knowledge of the exact requirements of the English markets they •sent a special commissionev to the United 'Kingdom to make the necessary inquiries, and the Canadian Agricultural department is at present taking advantage of every possible means of educating the £>ig producer of the Dominion as to the type of animal to breed, and the best means of managing and feeding it, in order to produce bacon capable of taking its place alongside the finsst Irish and Danish cuts on the British market . It is in pursuance of this educational policy that special prominence is given, in the report already referred to, to a series of articles dealing with pig-breeding on the most approved line?. A special feature of this report is a magnificent series of illustrations, which will serve to -give all into whose bonds it may fall an excellent idea of the class of pig to ■breed, and an eqiially graphic illustration of the type of pig not to bresd. These illustrations are most instructive, md _ phould prove of incalculable value in assisting the Agricultural department of the Dominion to educate the farmers of that country to a cor■rect appreciation of the type of pig to aim at.