THE JOURNAL 



OF THE 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Vol. X. No. I. JUNE, 1903. 



REARING AND FATTENING OF PIGS. 



That there is an enormous increase in the consumption of 

 bacon, hams and small pork in this country could, if necessary, 

 be easily proved by reference to the importation returns. Of 

 bacon, there is now imported about 250,000 tons annually ; in 

 addition to this, our imports of hams, lard and fresh pork are 

 enormous, and the whole costs the country about ,£25,000,000 a 

 year, or more than double as much as we paid for the same 

 kinds of imported food as recently as ten years since. It is 

 alleged that our home manufacture of pork products has also 

 increased, owing to the fact that greater attention has been paid 

 to the feeding and the earlier maturity of our home-bred pigs- 

 There is little doubt that a great many pig-breeders have given 

 up the wasteful system of keeping their growing pigs as stores 

 for many months, and that others have turned their attention to 

 the production of so-called porker pigs whose dead weight is 

 from 60 to 70 lb. each, and by these means have increased their 

 annual output of pork ; yet as one travels the country round it 

 is impossible to avoid coming to the conclusion that very muck 

 improvement is still possible and even necessary before any- 

 thing approaching perfection is arrived at in the quantity and 

 quality of the pigs we produce in these Islands. 



I am not inclined to assent to the assertions of those who^ 

 delight in attempting to prove that our farmers are fearfully 

 neglectful of their golden opportunities in that they fail to 

 produce the major portion of the pork products which we now 

 import, since I do not think that we could with profit extend 

 our pig breeding to anything approaching the extent necessary 



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