PIG FARMING.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 303, 29 September 1888, Page 2

PIG FARMING.

}** \ *v ...m „ - <-_ * f In the,, tfnited iStates\ there more -pigs than s sfieep^a|iajpfc which we do pot t easily " realise? Xn^h^S" country of large flocks, ami whjßre*tlie pigis treated almost l as an oulca,st' f and/ah ;al]6n. Chicago"* alone\6o,6oo;pigs &> day are killed during . the killing season,, and' bacon and hams to the value » of between 16 and^l7 millions sterling were exported? from the. United 'State3 in the -'years 1882 and 1883. America does no.t appear to be highly adapted for sheep farming, but , maize is found to be a good alternate crop with wheat, and so maize is grown in immense quantities, and pigs are reared by the million to eat the maize. This is just the difference between the way they do things in America,, and the way tney do things in the" Colonies. Probably it would be impossible to find a market at profitable prices outside the United States, for a fraction of the quantity of maize they can grow there, and so the wide-awake Yankees work it up into meat through the agency of the most economical of meat-producing animals, and ship it off in tb at form. In New Zealand if maize were a crop suitable to the land, we should grow maize, and then begin to look out for a market for it in its raw state, and failing a market* we should let it lie about in stacks and stores, waiting for better times to turn up. There is no animal which gives so large a return in meat for the quantity of food it consumes as a well-bred pig, but in this country of cheap and plentiful mutton it does not receive the attention at the hands of farmers that it deserves. Had the large quantity of damaged wheat, that has been shipped Home and sold at a loss to the producers, 1 been converted into pork, it would probably have given very different results. One reason why pigs are so much avoided by farmers is that they fluctuate rapidly in value. Pigs are such prolific breeders that the numbers can be increased within a very short time, and the supply soon over-runs the demand of the local markets, but if the curing industry were brought to anything approaching the perfection attained in the United States, and a regular export trade established, farmers might go on rearing hogs, as the Yankees call it without thj least danger, of reducing the value. The Americans have worked up gigantic industries from sources which New Zealanders look upon as beneath their notice. The pigrearing and fruit-growing industries are two conspicious cases in point, and yet both pigs and fruit can produced as advantageously here as in America. We neglect these resources while American fruit and even American hams are on our list of imports. Although pig-rearing is generally neglected, we meet with a fanner here and there who has made a gooJl thing out of pigs by going into the business with system and intelligence. Pigs require less looking after with regard to their health than any other kind of stock, and if they have' the run of a clover paddock or a bit of good swamp, will keep in growing condition at a very trifling expeuse to the owner. But mosb of our farmeis are above keeping pigs, except in an amateur sort of a way, and prefer to waste a lot of odds and ends of produce which might be turned into good pork, and send their tailing corn and damaged wheat to market to sell for whatever it will fetch, rather than go into pig-farming. But the rearing of pigs te be profitable on a large scale must go together with efficient curing and preparation for market, and an established export trade. It is in the co-operation of industries where the Colony is weakest, but we are gradually waking up to a sense of its importance. The breeding of a good sort of pig is a much simpler matter than the breeding of choice cattle or sheep. Having obtained a good sort it is not a difficult matter to keep it up to the mark, as pigs are less dependent og the character of the climate and soil than other kinds of stock. Generally speaking, farmers' pigs in this country are very much neglected, and for the want of a little care in breeding, are allowed to deteriorate until they can scarcely be distinguished from the lineal descendants of those turned out by Captain Cook. As we have said, there is no more economical meat manufacturing machine than a well bred pig, but a long-snouted, flat-sided, long-legged animalj with bristles like a porcupine, may be warranted to consume all the food it can get and show nothing for it. There are a great variety of breeds, but it cannot be said that any one sort is absolutely the best. As to the comparative merits of the various breeds there is considerable difference cf opinion, and of course much depends on the special object for which the pigs are kept— • whether for porkers or bacon. It would appear that moderate weight sorts are most in favour in America, as according id published statistics, the average weight of pigs imported into English markets is 14 stones. The large white, the small white, the small black, and the iierkshires are, to judge from the reports, of the Koyal Society's exhibitions, the leading English breeds at present. It is said, however, that fancy breeding in pigs, as in other classes of stock, is being carried to an undue limit.' The Berk' shires are, from this reasqri,an danger of losing their , typical peculiarities. The shape of a pig's forehead arid the angle, of Ms snout are held Wbe points' of importance, while the marking is regarded from quite an* artistic standpoint. To quote '.from .-one of "the Royal Society's * reports, breeders *areV,' r sacrificing to the perfection of mould, which appeals to the eye in Caix:'inspection u of live animals, much of'tlicinternarexcellence whichjeon- ] stitutes 'the s wdVth of' animals whenYthe/^ passfjinto the hands of the butcheivl-andf thabacpn-curer." . ~ '.. : iytn