THE PRICE OF PIGS

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 66, 10 December 1921, Page 12

THE PRICE OF PIGS

A FARMER’S COMPLAINT. Sir—l feel sure your paper will help to make public 'just one item that the , farmer has to put up with. Yesterday ; ruling price for bacon jiigs was sd. a pound live weight, the buyer then deducting about 30 per cent, for dead, weight, in addition to only paying for pigs up to 1601 b., SO if you have pigs weighing 2601 b. you only get paid tor 1601 b., less 30 per cent. Now, as the bacon factories do not mind taking pigs over 1601 b. weight, what WP®? 6 other 1001 b.? Is that all waste? Then the poor public, who has such a down on the rich (!) farmer, has to pay Is. 9d a pound for bacon, made from tne pigs the farmer gets sd. a pound for. Gan you tell- me who heats the P ubl ], c th ® - farmer or the middleman? The' iar ™=f has to (breed or buy his pigs in, the first place, sometimes paying as high as -ss. for weaners. Then he has to- W them , three times a day for mally weeks to get them fit for bacon pigs. then he to cart them in most cases many mi es to the railway station to receive sd. a £>und delivered to the buyer, and.tdl the price of bacon is Is. 9d. a poun , having gone up 3d. a pound in-the last fhree months. Why, if butter, sugar,, meat, and all necessary living M “ mod ties have come down, why is it that bacon is still allowed to be sold at Is--4d a pound more than the buyer pays for his pork Surely there’s - wrong. The butcher[ pays 2{d- to 2Jd lb. for sheep and retails a round—not so much P roht , a ' ing all his expenses, shop rent, W£ing, labour, the cutting up small quantities. Lue bacon have the lard, trimnnngs 6O odd in to say nothing of all tne pig thev kindly take off the former s , they so j -./vuk T wish some hands weighing over ICOlb. 1 abler pen than mine could. take tnis matter up and fathom out just where marcei K pound: comes in. , that extra Is. a m T ? _v Thanking you for publishing am> etC ” A POOR FARMER. December 7, 1921. ,