The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 1882. PENINSULA PORK.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 593, 21 March 1882, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 1882. PENINSULA PORK.

In all large dairying districts many pigs are always kept to consume tbe whey, which would otherwise be lost. The Peninsula is of course no exception to the rule, and wherever cheese is made you are certain to see pigs. It becomes, therefore, a matter of vital importance in this county to have well-bred hogs, that will make the most of their and a paper or papers on the subject of the pigs most suitable for whey feeding might be read at one of the meetings of the Farmers 1 Club with great advantage to all, for it would call attention to the matter.

Peninsula pigs, however, hardly get a +air chance. As a rule they hare nothing to eat, or rather drink, but whey, from their birth to the time they are killed, and consequently their bacon is not held in very high esteem. We have been informed by many farmers that it is essential, in order to obtain good hams aud bacon, that the pigs should receive some grain food before being killed, in older that the flesh may be hardened. They will grow on the whey and get fat, but the meat has not the requisite firmness to produce a firstclass article. For this reason the price of Peninsula hams and bacon is very low in comparison with that from the ; laius, where the pigs have the run of the stubble fields ; and besides this, no one keeps more pigs than he can help, and youngsters are almst unsaleable at times.

Now, as it is an acknowledged fact that a pig can be as well mired on whey ns anything else to within a few weeks of bhc end of his life, when he reqtvres firmer diet, we would suggest that some plan be adopted by which that last week or two's grain feeding can be accomplished. As to private individuals buying sharps at 12s a 1401b bag, aud chicken wheat at 4s 6d a bushel, to feed pigs on, it is more than can be expected, more particularly that they would reap little benefit, as coning from the dairy country, where the majority was whey fed bacon, it would be classed with it

What we should like to sec established would be a bacon factory for the Peninsula, at which the pigs could be fattened aud killed. The animals could be reared on whey, as at present, and, when they had attained the requisite yi:ce, could be .sent to the factory, ami properly i.-d before conversion into bacon. Tho factory should certainly be established in some place where the grain could he grown for the pigs, so that the enormous

expense of g (ting it from tho I buns might be saved

Such ii factory could certainly be economically worked, as it need nut he open more than a few months in (he. year In May. wv su; pose, ahmU th* end of the (lairyin.tr season, the pi.trs would begin to come in, and the killing, curing, and smoking would of course take place in the cold months of June, July and August, when other work is slack. The grain could of cour a be grown by contract if the fadory weic in the hands of a company. We would suggest that the Farmers' Club tidce up the matter and end avor to get farmers generally to join and establish such a factory. I'no doubt a suitable piece of land could be leased at a reasonable rate, and no great expense need bo incurred in erecting buildings. Suppose the shares were made 10s or £1 each, and a majority of the farmers took up one or two there would be no difficulty in starting, and the benefit would bo immediate if the factory were properly worked, for it would mean a considerable increase in the price ol bacon. Everything, of course, would depend on the pigs being properly led and the meat well cured. Great care would have to be taken in the matter, and a distinctive brand adopted. If such a factory were established we are certain that a very much greater number of pig-; would be reared, and that they would be a source of a very much larger income to the farmers than they are at

present. It is to be hoped that during the coming winter when members of the Farmers' Club will have more leisure, that fortnightly meetings for the reading of papers on interesting subjects will be held, and thai at these meetings the important subject we have written on, will receive that attention which it most certainly deserves.