THE PORK INDUSTRY.

Motueka Star, Volume I, Issue 15, 1 October 1901, Page 4

THE PORK INDUSTRY.

INTERESTING TRIAL. Derkshire v. Tamwoeth-Berkshire Cross. A Taranaki farmer recently addressed the following letter to Mr Jarvis, of Rongotea, on the merits of the Tarn-worth-Berkshire cross for a thrifty and profitable bacon pig : Dear Sir,—l promised to let you know the particulars of the trial I made last year between pure Berkshires and half-bred Tamworth-Berkshires. The result of the trial was spoiled owing to the TamworthBerkshires being affected with tuberculosis. I was sorry to find that Mr Wilson (manager at bacon factory) had supplied the information to the press. The Tamworth-Berkshire crosses were by Drake's Tamworth boar out of a Berkshire sow. The Berkshires were out of a similar sow by a Berkshire boar. In July last I shut up six Tamworth-Berkshires two months old with six pure bred Berkshires about a fortnight older in a large sty and fed them on boiled wheat (broken grain) and what milk I had to spare. I kept them together for two months, then divided the sty, having the six Berkshires in one half, and the six Tamworth-Berk-shires in the other. I then found it took as much food to satisfy fonr Berkshires as it did five Tamworth Berkshires. After they had been separated about a month two of the 1 amworth-Berkshires sickened, and I put them in a separate sty, and after keeping them there nearly a month, I got the. Inspector of Stock to kill them, as they were in a bad way, and they proved to be tuberculous. By this time, two more Tamworth Berkshires ceased to thrive, and I arranged to send the lot to Drake's factory and have them killed under the supervision of the Stock Inspector. were killed on the 2ist November, the TamworthBerkshires being just six months old, and the Berkshires six and a half months. The weights were: Berdshires, 195, 18S, IS2, 180, 170, and 1651 b, live weight. Tam-worth-Berkshires, 226, 208, 184, and 1551 b live weight. The net weights being : Berkshires, 140, 1 37 i I 3 I > I2 S> I 3°i J? izolb, averaging I ; Tamworth-Berkshires, 164, 151, 133, and averaging 1401 b. Of the four Tamworth-Berkshires, the two lightest weights were tuberculous, the 15 lib slightly so, and the 1641 b one healthy. The Berkshires were all healthy. There is no rea-

son to suppose the Tamworth-Berkshires are more liable to contract tuberculosis than the Berkshfres, at any- rate so far as this trial went, for there is little doubt that the Tamworth-Berkshires contracted it whilst with the mother in a paddock with a tuberculous bullock. I am quite satisfied, in my own mind, that the first cross between the TarmvorthBerkshire is a more profitable pig than the Berkshire. It so happened that I had tv o sows farrow the same day. Each only reared five pigs, the one' sow line 1 Ly a Berkshire boar, and the other by a Tarnworth. The Tamworth-Berkshires I sent to the factory a fortnight' ago, net weights 1401 b, whilst it will take another month to bring the Berkshires up to the same weight. My opinion is that the Berkshire is a pood pig to cross with the Yorkshire and Tamworth. With me the Yorkshire-Berk-shire crosses were fit for the factory at about the same age as the Tamworth-Berk-shires, but the Berkshires took from a quarter to a sixth more food, and the YorkshireBerkshire was liked better at the factory ; in fact, until the Tamworth cross came into the market, Drake's show bacon was mostly from Yorkshire-Berkshire pigs. Yours truly, Taranaki Farmer.