UNMARKETABLE PIGS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 2986, 20 January 1881, Page 4

UNMARKETABLE PIGS.

A radical change (says Col. F. D. Curtis, in The Rural Now Yorker) in the breeding of pigs is necessary. We say necessary, if the consumption of pork is to be increased. As pigs are now bred and fattened people will „ofc eat pork except in limited quantities. In a former article on this subject we stated that fully one quarter less pork was consumed now in proportion to the inhabitants than formerly. Recent careful inquiries among dealers, and farmers also, have satisfied us that not more than half as much pork' is used as an article of diet as when pigs were so bred as to be butter adapted for food. _"_o line of improvement for many years has followed fashion or fancy, ■which has demanded short noses and fat cheeks. Con- ;: p.,. breeding in this direction has also Jurtened ihe bodies and thickened the sides, so that the modern pig has becomo not much, less than a stuffed, rounded mass of plumness, or animate fat. Such food is not digestible, and hence is unpalatable, even though fashion may mark it perfect in the form of a pig, and prizes be given to it by judges educated in the fancy school. Sarcasm has pointed for years to a pig with a natural nose and a long body as a monstrosity which Bhould not be tolerated in thoroughbred society. In the face of publicopinion, we must pronounce the monstrosities to be of the other sort. A pig made up of less than 25 per cent, of bone and muscle — lean meat—and the balance of lard is not food very desirable. Just about these proportions are found in most pigs. "Farmers have experienced so much difficulty in selling this kind of meat that but few pigs are now kept where formerly large numbers were grown, and this profitable home market has necessarily been done away with, Heavy pigs used to command the highest prices, but now in the interior country they can hardly be sold at all. Butchers who cut up and sell fresh meat, require light and thin pigs, so that they can get a larger proportion of lean meat, and they complain ■universally about the improved chunky pigs having too much fat. The old-fashioned, heavy hog had a long body and its natural adjunct—a long nose, as the two go together. Long noses and long bodies; short fatty heads and short fatty bodies are relative characteristics. Why should farmers let these fancy notions stand between them and their own interests, and why should farmers persist in producing a kind of meat that is unsuited to hur-'r>.r stomachs ? Old breeds of hogs which possessed the characteristics of long bodies and plenty of lean meat, have had these characteristics bred out of them by continuous crosses upon the finer breeds which fancy called perfect, but about whose only virtue is that they are " easy to keep." The pigs of the latter kind could be very much changed in their characteristics if they were made to exercise or roam about in an open field or roomy yard while growing, which would have the effect to develop bone and muscle. This will never be the case when pigs are kept closely confined. A pig is naturally, if plenty of food is given to it, an indolent animal. The approved idea and practice in growing pigs are to keep them as quiet as possible, so that no food may be thrown away by exercise. It does not take a philosopher to know that pigs thus cramped and confined will have morbid appetites and eat nearly all the time. They soon go into a feverish condition which continues nntil butchering time, and often toeats them down before, when they are speedily slaughtered. Such pigs can scarcely walk, as their joints are inflamed, the bones weak, and the tissues diseased— but they are fat.

We insist that pigs reared and fattened in close pens are not fit for human food, and yet this is tbe common way in which these animals are made into food. Economy zcay argue that there will bo less consumption of food on account of quiet, as an offset against healthiness ; but we are inclined to attach more importance to the latter than to the former, since in the long ran health is evidently moro important, and also more profitable ; as pigs reared under a system which gives them plenty of exercise, whioh will produce bone and muscle and lengthier bodies, will better reach tho requirements of the market and more ready and extensive sale.

VTo might add that this change of system will furnish a purer air, which of itself would be reason enough for urging a reform in the fattening of pigs. A pen reeking with filth and the vapors which inevitably arise therefrom, and which must be inhaled by pigs, certainly cannot be conducive to health. Lungs thus constantly filled with impurity cannot purify the blood. In order to insure rapid growth and fatten pigs they are usually given food in a promoted form, which has the effect to promote fever. Practically, pigs cannot always be fattened out of pens ; but they can be feed tvith food less concentrated so as to promote a healthier condition • and, practically, breeds may be selected of a less chunky character, in which lean meat and fat are both combined. Either of these reforms can be easily reached, and will result in improving the quality of pig meat.