THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SMALL BACON FACTORIES

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

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SMALL BACON FACTORIES

Whoever fanners are gcod all-round men, and do noit trust all their eggs to one basket, it will pay them to breed pigs. When the tiller of the soil has seconds ■wheat or damaged oats to dispose of, or small potatoes, he will get more out of them by converting them into bacon than he will by selling in the. market; and when a farmer supplies a factory and returns laden with separated milk or whey he mu6t have pigs to take any value out of it. Amy farm ifi not complete without brood sows and fattening pigs, and nothing pays better; and it rests with factory directors to provide the means of turning all the -cow products to the best advantage. If bacon-curing factories were established under the same management as the factories, this might be done. The process of bacon-curing now gees on all the year round. At one time it was risky work. in summer, but with artificial refrigeration and the cheaper pigs which can be produced in warm weather, summer curing is successful. At cue time it was only the establishment putting a large quantity through its hands which could atfford the requisite' machinery and was justified in making the required outlay; but with the advent of cheaper gas engines, fed with producer gas, the small curer is placed on a level with the large. It is very important to secure a good market for the offal, much of which in the case of the pig is a cheap and acceptable article of food, for which there always is a good demand. All the by-products must bo utilised—but with the railway line handy that should not be a difficulty. Then the site of the factory should be chosen with due regard to efficient drainage, and be centrally situated, so as to have a large collecting area from which to draw its supplies at the lowest possible cost of conveyance. When freight has to be paid on every carcase it takes the cream off the transaction, and amounts into a considerable sum in the year'6 work. The development of the factory system for dairy produce points to the eentres where small bacon, factories might be established. The directors of these would materially increase their clients' returns by establishing bacon-curing- fa<! : tones. The most profitable use the separated milk or whey can be put to is fattening the bacon pig. A careful observer

has remarked' that the best flavoured pork and the heaviest Aveight of the same was obtained m milk-fed sAvine. Next to milk came the cereal corn, barley, oats, and peas. Potatoes produced a soft., light pork, -which loses a good deal in boiling, The meat of swine fed on flourmill byproducts was yellow, without body, and of a poor flavour. Beans-produced a hard, indigestible, and flavourless pork, and acorns one that was light, hard, and unhealthy. The relation of milk and cereals for p:g-feeding purposes would appear to be 31b of separated milk to lib of meal. One of the very beet rations for fattening purposes is 1 gallon of separated milk, 31b of potatoes, and 41b of barley meal. If the directors of produce factories would pasteurise theiir milk and enable the far-* mar to grow healthy pigs the bacon industry would go ahead by leaps and bounds. The two industries should go hand in hand; anything that will enable the farmer to mraks full use of his milk will benefit the factories, and should be encouraged by them.