BACON PIGS.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10318, 29 January 1927, Page 3

BACON PIGS.

WHAT THE CURER WANTS

GOOD SIRE ESSENTIA!,.

Tliiit we ought to produce livesixths, or five hundred thousand, of our pigs thoroughly suitable for the manufacture of high-class bacon, is true, states Sanders Spencer in a letter to the “Live Stock Journal.” Our bacon competitors, the Danes, are able to produce good baconers to the extent of five-sixths; surely ayc ought to be able to raise an equal proportion of bacon pigs, whereas one-sixth is nearer to our actual production. It may be worth while making an attempt to discover the cause of our failure to provide the raw material necessary.to keep our bacon factories at work, especially as our foreign and successful competitors have been obliged to come to this country for breeding pigs in order to grade up their own native stock. This would appear to prove that the want of suitable breeding stock is not the cause of our want of success, and that this is due to our neglect in utilising generally the best pigs which we possess. Our curers tell us that they require a long-sided pig of about six months old and weighing alive some 200 to 2201 b. The pig must be fine in bone, skin and hair, with as little offal as is possible, light in the forequarters and with well-devel-oped hams. The flanks must be thick, as this indicates a large proportion of lean to fat in the carcase, and the absence of those thin bellies which the public taste objects to. The bacon pig should not be too deep in the carcase, as such a one is likely to be too gutty and to produce a thin belly. In attempting to breed a pig of this description it is essential to have at least one parent of the formation and character described, and this must be the sire, as he is credited with having a far greater influence on the formation of the joint produce of the boar and the sow than the latter. Of course, if both the parents are of the correct form and character, the chances of - breeding pigs such as are required would be greatly increased, but the boar can beget fifty litters of pigs during the time the sow is building up one litter; the one good boar is more easily found than the fifty good sows. In addition to that it may be much more easy to find a number of farm sows which are prolific and good milkers for a lengthened period than a similar number of pedigree sows possessing the same necessary qualities in a marked degree. Then the question of outlay in forming a large herd may have to bo considered. The cost of the pedigree sows would be considerably more than the ordinary farm sows.

The euror requires a young pig to enable him to compete successfully with his foreign rivals. The old-fashioned idea of a growing and then a fattening period in the life of a pig has been exploded, and this is for two reasons, without it you arc able to provide the butcher and bacon curer with what is to them a necessity, a young fat pig, and the other is that the system is unprofitable. It must .be remembered that each day in the life of a pig a certain amount of food has to be given to it merely to keep it alive; therefore, the shorter the life the smaller .amount of food is consumed for mere maintenance or continuation of the life of the pig. The amount of maintenance food required is 21b of meal for each 1001 b of live pig, so that each week a 1001 b live weight pig continues alive in excess of requirements a stone is wasted, and each two months the value of ' a cwt of meal is lost. Our grandfathers believed that each pig must have a growing period in its life, as it was not possible for the, pig to grow and fatten at one and the same time, and that it was cheaper to feed a pig during the first few months of its life on less expensive food or food which costs less for a given bulk, but they forgot that the food value in the low-priced food costs just as much as it does in the more concentrated foods. It must also be remembered that the pig is not constituted to dispose of a large quantity of bulky food as is the cow and that its natural food in the form of acorns, beech, mast and foods or this character are strongly concentrated foods. It is therefore imperative, in order to render the pig most profitable to its owner and the bacon curer, to feed it liberally on the most suitable food from the, time--of its birth, so that it may the sooner manufacture flesh of the best quality at the least cost and the greatest profit to its owner.

ERADICATING BLACKBERRY. * AN INVERCARGILL IDEA. Two Invercargill men in the persons of Messrs.. Barry and Fenn have been experimenting with a liquid substance sis an agent in the destruction of blackberry, and judging by the samples of treated blackberry brought into, the “News” office they have made a success of the job. It may not be generally known but the Department of Agriculture offers a substantial bonus to aixy one or any party that succeeds in perfecting a machine or a spi'ay that will both economically and effectively eradicate this great . pest—the blackberry Southland is fortunate indeed in that the blackberry pest has not assured much greater proportions throu ghost the Province; here it is certainly troublesome and costly to eradicate bnt in parts of the North Island it has taken possession of much valuable land. So that this blackberry infested land may be recovered for agriculture, the Government has offered a handsome prize to the first person who solves, to the Government satisfaction, the problem of the blackberry. The method adopted by Messrs. Barry and Fenn is to spray a specially prepared mixture over the plant which then rapidly dies back so that it can he burnt; a further inject tion of the liquid into the roots succeeds in killing the plant outright without doing any permanent injury to,the land. Evidence of the efficiency of • this treatment is found in the dead branches and roots of blackberry now covered over by luscious grass and clovers niqe months after the patch had been treated. _ It is claimed that hushes sprayed with the mixture are dead within a fortnight of its application. The cost is very low and the materials used in preparing the spray are easily obtainable. Various methods of applying this mixture suggest themselves and several have already been tried out. No doubt the future progress of the scheme will be watched with a good deal of interest.