SWINE, 



By Prof. G. E. Pay, K. S. A., Professor of Agriculture and Farm Superintendent. Ontario Agricultural 

 College, Guelph, Ontario. 



I. Judging Hogs of Bacon Type— II. The Fat Hog.— III. Large Yorkshires.— IV. Tamworths. 

 V. Berkshires. 



In dealing with this subject it will be necessary to pay special atten- 

 tion to the type of hog for which Canada is noted, and this calls for 

 some e.<planations regarding our trade in pork products. 



American vs. Canadian Trade. — In the United States there is an im- 

 mense home market for lard and oleomargarine (a substitute for butter). 

 In Canada we have no trade in oleomargarine, and a very much smaller 

 home market for lard. The American packer, therefore, can utilize 

 very fat hogs, manufacturing lard and oleomargarine from the fat, and 

 placing only the leaner carcases and the lean parts of the fat carcases 

 upon the market to be consumed as meat. On the other hand, practi- 

 cally all the Canadian hogs must be consumed as meat, and as there is 

 a very limited and decreasing demand for fat pork, the production of a 

 leaner type of hog has become a necessity. Great Britain is the home 

 of the export trade in pork products of both Canada and the United 

 States, the latter country exporting vastly larger quantities than Canada; 

 and in order to keep out of a hopeless competition with the Americans, 

 our packers have been forced to cater to an entirely different class of 

 customers. Thus it comes that the lean and carefully prepared bacon 

 of Canada is taken by the large cities of Great Britain, while the Ameri- 

 can product goes to a less fastidious class of customers at a considerably 

 lower price. Canadian bacon, therefore, does not realh-^ come into 

 competition with the American product in Great Britain, and a very 

 little consideration of the facts brieliy outlined above should convince 

 any thoughtful person of the importance of kee})ing out of the way of 

 American competition. Our chief competitors are Denmark and Ireland, 

 and the whole future of our swine industry is dependent upon the intel- 

 ligent attention our Canadian breeders and feeders pay to quality. 

 Superior quality must be our motto, if we would hold and extend our 

 trade. 



The kind of bacon of which Canadian packers make a specialty is 

 what is known as the "Wiltshire side." To make this bacon, a hog is 

 required weighing from one hundred and sixty pounds to two hundred 

 and twenty pounds, live weight, though hogs are preferred not over two 



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