( 119 ) 



EDITOKIAL GLEANINGS. 



Last autumn we received a circular on ' Swine Husbandry and 

 Bacon Production,' by Mr. Loudon M. Douglas, Lecturer on the Meat 

 Industry, Edinbugh, and for want of space have been unable to refer 

 to it before in these pages. The following extracts are both economi- 

 cally important and zoologically interesting : — 



" From day to day the evidence continues to accumulate showing 

 that the bacon markets of the world are hopelessly disorganized, and 

 that in so far as swine husbandry is concerned we are passing through 

 a critical time. It is, in fact, a curious state of affairs, and calls for 

 special comment not only from all who are interested in the prosperity 

 of agriculture, but from those also who are specially concerned with 

 securing steady markets in the provision trade. Apparently the 

 shortage began about the beginning of the present year (1909), and 

 has been more especially marked in the United Kingdom, but it exists 

 also in the United States, Canada, and Denmark, these being the 

 principal bacon-curing countries of the world. In the United States 

 the outlook is indeed a serious one, not only for that country itself, 

 but for the export trade. Actual records show, for example, that the 

 number of hogs packed on what is known as the Western Markets, 

 and which include Chicago, Kansas, South Omaha, St. Louis, Cincin- 

 nati, and other towns to the number of sixteen, as also smaller towns 

 in the same territories, exhibit a very considerable shortage as com- 

 pared with last year (1908). Erom March 1st to September 1st in 

 each year the figures were as follows : — 



Number of pigs packed on Western Markets, U.S.A. 



1908 12,975,000 



1909 11,735,000 



Shortage 1,210,000 



" Naturally, under such circumstances, we turn to our home con- 

 ditions in order to see if anything is being done to avert the coming- 

 famine, and at the very outset are met with the figures from the pre- 

 liminary statement just issued (1909) by the Board of Agriculture, in 

 which the numbers of live stock in the United Kingdom are given. 

 We find that there is a lamentable shortage of pigs as compared with 

 last year (1908). The figures are as follows : — 



