THE BACON INDUSTRY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3003, 4 October 1911, Page 14

THE BACON INDUSTRY.

The stock of pigs in the Dominion is nothing to .boast of, and in the course of the next five years, should pasteurisation become general, a great' many more pigs will be required for fattening. The shortage of brood sows kept by farmers will preclude the possibility of increasing the number very rapidly, and the increased demand will have the effect of raising the price of stores to a profitable level, and this section of the farmer's business will pay better than ever. The dairy cattle are getting so rotten with tuberculosis that pasteurisation of skimmed milk and whey is bound to come. There as no option; the posttion will have to be seriously faced. And when the by-pro-ducts of the factory are sterilised pigrearing .and fattening will be highly profitable. Owing to the" falling off in American shipments and the scarcity of pigs an Bulgand, gratifying returns would be obtained from any first-class bacoiv sent Home. It has been dearly demonstrated 'U Mr Reakss that (1) pigs fed on unsterilieed tuberculous milk very soon become seriously affected, (2) that properly pasteurised skimmed milk and whey is a safe food for pigs which as amproved m the process, and (5) that the disease an pigs has mainly its origin an cattle, ana the repression of tuberculosisi in cattle and the pasteurisation of the Taiilk leads to a hive decrease, to. say the least oi the tuberculosis of swine. So soon, therefore, as the whey is treated successfully will it become a satisfactory pag food. The whole export iaadustry of bacon hinges on being able to grow and/fatten healthy pigs, and ,this cannot be done on tubeiculous milk or whey. In the making of cheese about 86 per cent, of the feeding value of the milk is returned to the farm in the shape of whey, find m buttermaking about 88 per cent, is milk. Taking an average of 480 gallons of returned milk, and valuing at at Id per gallon, that makes £2 chargeable gainst the pigs for the year Can dairymen afford to throw away that amount? Until pasteurisation is universal no promess will be made. Healthy Fgs would have to be bred up, and for fear of infection none but those which have been similarly bred and fed could be mixed with them. We ore far behind other countries in this industry. The alertness with which the Americans keep in touch with the British market, and the way in which the State aids both eurers and farmers in their endeavour to obtar-n new markets, is an object-lesson for us. The most minute particulars of the class of animal to breed for bacon are circulated in pamphlet form round all the farms. The typical bacon pig is described. -as long in the body, deep in the sr.de, with comparatively narrow bade, narrow and liffht hams and shoulders, and light muscular neck. This kind is said to furnash the best and most expensive cuts, and weighs when killed, 1601 b to 2201 b No exception can be taken to the breeds we have in New Zealand, and if our choice falls for breeding purposes on the _ best built and most powerful of the animals bred from strong and healthy parents, the resulting bacon would be all right. Mr Leonard Douglass, in the Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society, says that the bacon industry of the-United Kingdom has been passing through a period of considerable trial during the last three years'owing to the scarcity of supplies from foreign countries. Hitherto we have depended to a large extent on our bacon imports, and the Home products,, which always maintain their superiority in quality over imported goods, have only supplied a small portion of whit was consumed. This condition of affairs has during the last few years been accentuated by the decline of the anamal imports from the United States, which at one time was the principal supply. Statistics for 1910 show that not only in bacon but in hams . and salt pork . the decline continues. The value of Bntash imports has declined from 5,685,742 cwt in 1908 to 3,863,389 cwt in 1910, valued at 16 million pounds sterling. Surely we could manage to secure one or two of those millions. The Amea-ican supply has dropped 50 per cent, in three years. To appreciate what that means it must be borne in mind that of a total of 100 million pigs whiich exist in the world the United States possesses about one-half,' or 50 millions. The pig population of the United Kingdom fluctuates round about four millions. That number, it will be seen, is wholly inadequate to meet the demands of the market