2IO 



AGRICULTURAL ORGANISATION 



The total supplies from abroad, and more especially those 

 from certain countries, have been steadily diminishing of 

 late years, and retail prices have risen so much that bacon 

 is likely to become a luxury for the well-to-do rather than 

 remain a favourite item in the popular dietary. 



In the matter of bacon imports the significance of the 

 figures in the following table will be readily appreciated : 



Comparing 1906 with 1911 it will be seen that in the last- 

 mentioned year there was a decline of 958,084 cwts. in the 

 importations from the United States, and one of 574,718 

 cwts. in those from Canada, a total of 1,532,802 cwts., 

 mainly due to the fact that the increasing consumption in 

 those countries is leaving only a steadily diminishing 

 quantity available for export. It is true that we are 

 importing more from Denmark and from " other countries," 

 but the net result shows a decline in the total imports in 

 1911, as compared with 1906, of 673,884 cwts. 



It must, of course, be remembered that what is known as 

 " swine husbandry " is, to a large extent, an adjunct of the 

 dairy industry, bacon production in Denmark, Canada and 

 Ireland being mainly dependent on the feeding of the pigs 

 on separated milk from the butter factories or otherwise. 

 In England there are only comparatively small quan- 

 tities of separated milk because the farmers gain more by 

 sending their whole milk to the towns instead of making 

 butter. 



