57 



LESSONS FOR CANADIAN SWINE RAISERS AND 

 PACKERS. 



The Commission, composed of farmers residing in various provinces of Canada, 

 who rear and market swine in greater or less numbers each year, started out with a 

 clear understanding of the various phases of the swine rearing industry throughout the 

 Dominion. The instructions given them to investigate and find out as far possible the 

 conditions responsible for the success of the industry in Denmark, Great Britain and 

 Ireland were fully comprehended. The Commission undertook this work seriously and 

 devoted their time earnestly to the task. Every facility that could be asked was placed 

 at their disposal. The Commission is prepared to depend on the report to justify its 

 effort. 



A careful reading of the various chapters will reveal many lessons on pork pro- 

 duction. The time of the Commission was spent among successful men and associa- 

 tions who revealed their methods for examination. Nowhere was there found evidence 

 of success being attained through mysterious methods or secret processes. Intelligent 

 management was found to be responsible for satisfactory results all along the way. 

 This included persistency of purpose and a confidence in the system followed. Every- 

 where was there found a tendency to intensive methods which demand careful attention 

 to details. Nowhere was haphazard work associated with satisfactory result. Swine 

 rearing as examined in Europe is a highly organized branch of agriculture secondary 

 to and almost always associated with dairy farming. 



In Ireland the rank and file of pig raisers are men of small means who have found 

 in the pig a means of converting unsaleable products from the dairy, the potato field 

 and other parts of the farm into a valuable product. Long experience, coupled with 

 frugal habits and need of the returns from the fatted swine^ have taught the most 

 profitable methods of feeding. This cannot be said to be done by any special system, 

 but rather according to the circumstances of each case and the judgment of the feeder 

 begotten through long experience. The average Irish pig feeder is quick to detect 

 evidence of unthriftiness in his pigs, and sharp to apply the remedy. He does not over- 

 stock, but keeps sufficient to use to best advantage the offals and by-products he has, 

 together with as little as possible of expensive food. He keeps on day after day and 

 year after year in raising swine, and this is perhaps the most important lesson he has 

 for the Canadian farmer. By this persistence he has done his part in bringing the 

 Irish bacon trade into a profitable industry for Ireland and the individual Irish 

 farmer. 



In England the conditions are different. All agriculture may be said to be carried 

 on by an intensive system. While as in Ireland no suitable by-products are allowed 

 to waste for want of pigs, the industry goes farther than this, amounting even to an im- 

 portant branch of a highly organized system of live stock husbandry. The keeping of 

 pigs is carried on as a business enterprise and no chance is taken in regard to the losing 

 of money. Much of the concentrated food used is purchased at high prices, and the 

 books in the pig account must show a profit. There is little chance to save in the price 

 of food, which leaves the profit to be made from the pig side. The employment of a 

 bright, experienced feeder kept under the watchful eye of the master, is the means 

 adopted in getting results from the foods consumed. The English farmer, too, is stable 

 and consistent in his system of farming, and this has given him experience and estab- 

 lished a reputation for his products. He has a valuable lesson for the Canadan in his 

 consistency of purpose, application and keen business principles. 



The Scots farmer does not make a specialty of pork production. He milks cows 

 and makes cheese and uses pigs to turn the whey to good account. He buys most of 

 his grain food and must exercise care to get back his money with a little profit and 



