BEEEDING SOCIETIES 



107 



the bacon factories might in their own interests, as some of them 

 had previously done, assist the farmers to produce the right 

 kind of bacon pig. This has also to some extent been done 

 by the factories buying good boars to be stationed in various 

 districts, and in several cases by the formation of pig-breeding 

 societies. 



The growth of the pig-breeding societies is known only to 

 the time when the State-grant was withdrawn. From official 

 inquiry,! it appears that three societies were formed before 

 1890, and during the next quinquennial periods the following 

 numbers : — 



1890-94 

 1895-99 



There were ;- 



2 



2G 



1900-04 

 1905-09 



87 

 136 



Notwithstanding the great number of pigs in the country, 

 and the interest taken by farmers of all classes in bacon pro- 

 duction, as mentioned in a previous chapter, the pig-breeding 

 societies did not gain the same relative importance as the 

 corresponding societies in the branches of animal industry 

 dealing with horses and cattle. In 1909 it was found that 

 6824 holdings with 94,412 pigs, out of a total of 174,928 hold- 

 ings with 1,355,715 pigs, were connected with these societies, 

 or only 3-5 per cent, of the holdings and 6-5 per cent, of the 

 pigs. The corresponding percentages for bull clubs and horse- 

 breeding societies were 16*9 and 24*1 for the former, and 15*8 

 and 30*2 for the latter. A conspicuous exception was the 

 island of Bornholm, where 21*4 per cent, of the holdings and 

 46*4 per cent, of the pigs were in pig-breeding societies. And 

 while in 1914 the total number of Danish holdings connected 

 with pig-breeding societies had perceptibly fallen off, the 

 ^ Sec note on page 95. 



