56 



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 under- 

 standing of the various phases of the swine rearing industry throughout the Dominion. 

 The instructions given them to investigate and find out as far as 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 production. 

 The time of the Commission was spent among successful men and associations 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. Everywhere was there found a tendency to inten- 

 sive 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 exper- 

 ience. The average Irish pig feeder is quick to detect evidence of unthriftiness in his pigs, 

 and sharp to apply the remedy. He does not overstock, 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 important 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 established a reputation for his products. He has a valuable lesson 

 for the Canadian 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 something for the 

 whey. He has studied how to get these, and follows intelligently what he has found to give 

 best results. Having learned that sweet whey is better feed than sour, he gives it as fresh 



