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The Department of Agriculture is carrying out an ambitious policy in the interest 

 of swine improvement. Mr. Wood, who has charge of this work, showed the Com- 

 mission the herds of Yorkshires and Large Blacks, kept at Albert Agricultural College, 

 ' Glasnevin,' near Dubln, as well as many boars and their offspring throughout the 

 country. The object of the Department in its schemes is to encourage farmers to keep 

 for service only pure bred hogs of good type. To this end a sum of money is set apart 

 each year to be used as premiums for selected boars registered in the Royal Dublin 

 Society Herd Book. The eligibility of a boar for a premium is determined by an official 

 inspector appointed by the Department. Boars of the three breeds mentioned are 

 eligible for premiums of $25 for the first year, and $15 for the second. To secure the 

 premium for an approved hog, 30 sows must be served the first year, or 45 the second, 

 at a fee of one shilling each. The demand for premium boars is large and increasing, 

 and is frequently greater than the available supply. Practically all of the boars pro- 

 duced by the college herds of Yorkshires and Large Blacks are sold as premium hogs. 

 These are delivered to any part of the country for $24.30 per head at five months old. 

 Young sows in farrow are sold at the same price but are not delivered free. 



This scheme for the improvement of swine has been in operation since 1901, when 

 151 premiums were paid. The number has gradually increased until in 1908 it has 

 reached 340, which would be slightly exceeded in 1909. Of these, more than 200 were 

 Yorkshires, about 50 head Large Blacks and about 20 White Ulsters. The far-reaching 

 effect of the scheme will be better understood when it is pointed out that about 17 per 

 cent of the boars used in Ireland are premium boars; and since these are selected from 

 the standpoint of the bacon industry, it must be conceded that Ireland is bound to go 

 forward in the production of fine bacon swine. 



In Ireland, as in Great Britain, many of the farmers do not finish the stock that 

 they breed. A much larger proportion of them either raise pigs to sell as young stores, 

 or buy stores to finish. As a rule the man who finishes stock of his own breeding 

 makes the most of his pigs from year to year, but many adopt one or the other of the 

 two remaining systems. 



The Commission visited many representative swine rearing centres. It was found 

 that the character of the swine, and the manner of their treatment, differed in the 

 north and south. In the north the drooping ear and other characteristics of the Large 

 Ulster are most conspicuous, while in the central and southern counties the Y^'orkshire 

 form is generally in evidence. In a few districts spotted and black pigs are again 

 coming in, the result of the Large Black cross, and these are invariably highly popular 

 with the farmers. It is true that in times of heavy supplies an excuse is frequently 

 made by the buyers to discriminate against the black skins to the extent of a shilling 

 a cwt., but these pigs are such hearty feeders and good thris'ers that many feeders arc 

 bound to have them. When the markets are bare the blacks go as well as the others. 



Housing and Feeding. 



Very few piggeries that would be called good in Canada were seen in Ireland. 

 At the Albert College, a thoroughly comfortable and sanitary pen is in use, but at 

 most farms visited the pigs are housed in little stys, usually situated at the side of the 

 barn. It is, nevertheless, true that improvement is being effected in this matter by 

 the adoption of ideas on the construction of piggeries circulated in pamphlet form 

 by the Department of Agriculture. 



The Irish pig is, as a rule, well cared for. While hardly treated as a pet, it is 

 highly respected and carefully looked after. Where a farmer raises pigs in numbers 

 he is most likely to give this stock his personal care, -while in the case of the smaller 

 breeder with one brood sow, she is usually looked after by the wife or daughters. No 

 amount of trouble seems too much to devote to preparing food. Almost all food is 

 cooked and generally fed warm. Not many years ago it was the very general rule to 

 allow growing pigs to gather their living outside during summer until the potato crop 



