PIG BREEDING IN AUCKLAND.

Gisborne Times, Volume VIII, Issue 696, 16 December 1902, Page 4

PIG BREEDING IN AUCKLAND.

i'ObSililLlTlEri FOil TUB FAIIMBII.

Z. Herald

l’ig breeding for bacon, mess pork, and fresh pork for local use and export should march with the growth of the dairying industry in the Auckland province and form an important feature in the list of products from Auckland farms. That pork raising here is not keeping pace either with the expansion of the dairying industry or the increase in the local demand is made evident by the price of this meat in all its forms in the local markets. Fresh pork, bacon and hams, mess pork of a good quality, are all scarce and dear, and much of the bacon sold in the local market is produced in Canterbury. It is time that Auckland farmers altered this state of things, and not only supplied all local requirements, but began to build up an expert trade in these popular commodities. It is true that in Auckland city and in the Waikato there are bacon factories turning out a very good article, but these could be largely increased, and certainly there should be a bacon faotory wherever dairying is carried on on anything like a large scale. It is not ad visnblo that farmers should ho encouraged to >alt or euro their own pigs, except under certain conditions. This work is just as much within the scope of the modern factory as dairying is, and only the modern factory will ever build up the industry on a large scale. The work before the fanner is to provide pigs of the right quality and size in large numbers, and this they can do with profit to themselves if they go about it in the right way. Well-finished pigs are selling now at from -Id to 5d per pound in different parts of the North Island, and though at this figure an export trade might not bo successful it is moderately certain that at dd to -Id per lb a good business could be done, and farmers should bo well able to produce at this price and make a profit. Only recently large orders were received in New Zealand for bacon and hams for South Africa ut a good figure, but the orders could not bo supplied, simply because the pigs were not available. Under all circumstances Auckland farmers should bo able to supply their own local markets, mid not leave them epou to the Canterbury producer as at present. At ono time it was firmly believed that the climate of this province prevented tho manufacture of bacon, but with tho advent of the factory fitted with freezing machinery the work can bo carried on hero as successfully as anywhere else.

It is possibly true that tho grass-growing districts of Canterbury may have greater facilities for topping off pigs than Auckland, but this is all the more ail inducement for Aucklanders to go in for cultivating their laud and raising more crops than they do at present. Mr Yecht, the representative of the International Mess Fork Supply Company, who visited all parts of New Zealand some years ago, considered Auckland very favorably situated for tho raising of pigs, and one lias only to notice how the wild pig flourishes in various parts of the province to bo sure that climatic conditions boro are suitable for the animal. Auckland has at tho present timo close on YU,OOU pigs, many thousands more than any other district in the colony, and with such a supply it only becomos a question of breeding and feeding to raise largo numbers of animals suitable for export.

Bacon manufacturers hero and exporters complain that they arc handicapped by the unevenness in size and quality of the pigs supplied to them. This handicap need not exist. The farmers have only to find out what standard of pig is required and breed up to this standard. As is the caso with most other animals, including the dairy cows, which will supply so large a part of the pigs’ daily food, careful breeding can produce nearly any typo of animal within reason. Per pork, a compact, firm-lleshed pig, something like the best class of Berkshire, is required ; for bacon, a longer-bodied, deeper-sided pig is wanted. For the former Berkshircs or Yoskskires, or crosses from either, are satisfactory. For bacon, the Tarmvonh 1 boar, with a cross-bred sow, gives good results. Breeding up to the required standard, however, is a matter governed largely by local conditions. The pig answers better than most animals to wise selection, and a suitable typo can be quickly evolved. Feeding plays a very important part in the production of bacon and pork, as it also does in the well-being of stores. The system of keeping animals in cold, dirty styes, and supplying them with sloppy, sour food, is wasteful ai d cruel. For the greater part of a pig’s life it should have free opportunity to grn; s on grass, clover, rape, maize, or other green crops, and it should have a regular supply of roots, including sugar beet and other products rich in sugar. With these foods ns a base, and with a plentiful supply of sweet milk and pure water, and with clean, warm sleeping quarters, the quantity of meal cr grain required to fatten is not very large, and in most parts of Auckland maize, barley, peas, etc., can be raised easily for this purpose. One disadvantage the Auckland dairy farmer Certainly suffers from. As a rule, he does not possess the nl&uMliery W the plant needful lo produce anl deal with grain crops. Jt has been said that lie docs not possess fcue soil, but that is a libel. The rich maize and grass lands on the East Coast, from Whnkatanc to Te Buko, the best lands in the Waikato and Waipa Valleys, the extensive alluvial llats in the Northern Wairoa, Waiuku, and elsewhere; the great bcls of volcanic country in the Northern Peninsula cannot bo surprised for all-round productiveness I anywhere ; and when the so-called poor j lands of Auckland aro drained, ploughed, and iimcti sud cultivated, as is done with the Farming country in Otago and South- j land, they will produce just as much if not mote grain per acre. The fact of the matter is that Auckland farmers do not suffer so much from want of good laud as from want of capital. They had not, as a rule, so good a start as the Southerners, and they have had far more initial dilffcul-

tics ami expenses, rift-raising, however, with dairying, does not reouire much capital iu the way of machinery, for unthrashed peas will top animals off that have been supplied with roots and grass and milk. The Auckland dairy-farmer should undertake the raising of pigs, if it is only to get liitn into the habit of raising crops. Jluch of the feed used for pigs is highly necessary for dairy cows, and can be used for both classes of animals with great advantage.