Merit in a Pig.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2099, 19 December 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

Merit in a Pig.

It ia ictle to pretend not to ape tb.ifc a critical ircnerfttion not bo muoh distrusts as declines to accept, as being evidence at all, mnny showyard decision*. In no one department does the prize list differ so widely from the public verdict as in the pig daises. There aro oortainly district wheie tho competition in swine ia clohq, and excites attention ; but there are far more in which very few visitors stop by the pens which contain pigs, and, of the few wbo linper, but a sraalJ proportion yields assent- Now it U said wo may soon expect a ' -atly increasf d number of small occupiora of land. Should this prove true, wo may also anticipate a larger number of pig-critics. Ko one scans so closely tho merit* of a pig on «how, aa does a man in whose fmnrly "killing a pig" is an event: something which furnishes breakfast viands, and conversation, for a whole quarter. Now tbis claea of loober on Is distinctly indifferent to the beauties of pigs of the meal-sack pattern. Tfae •hortest of snouts— the most perfect absorption of all the other joints and protuberance! which differentiate pig-forma-tion from that of singe— are small attractions in their eyes. Custom, and their own stomtobs, hive taught them that bacon ia nicer and more digestible when streaky than when all grease. It is not unoommon to hear (or rather to read) that it is the shows which have done the mischief, and spoilt English piga for home consumption. Here is a little bit of oriticiim written just C 5 years ago about pigs, when ajns were many, and nowßpapera scaree :— " The general breed is a thickbodied, short legged kind, with the exception of some which are brougtft over from Ireland — long-eared, long-legged, meagre, creatures; which nevertheless, with t?ood feeding, increase to considerable size. From these the best bacon is made, having a fair proportion of lean along with the fat, which the home-reared have not, being always too fat." Possibly, as The Timet has had a leading article About marbled beef, and as the difference in mutton exercises scribes almost as muoh as the water-gruel (which was to be " thin, but not too thin ") did the oH gentleman in Miss Austin's " Emma," we may have this question of " what ia beat pdrk " ventilated. Only let persons intending to take part remi Tiber it ia not * new dilemma ; and do not let ay living critic claim to have been the dieco' ?r«r that thick pigs do not make lean bacoz .—-The Lhe Stork Journal.