Dairying  in  Denmark. 
173 
9.  Pig-feeding. — The  profitable  utilisation  of  the  “refuse” 
materials,  or  “ offal,”  of  the  dairy,  is  often  a most  difficult  pro- 
blem ; and  unless  solved  in  a practical  manner,  the  results  of  the 
dairying  operations  bring  a loss  instead  of  a profit  to  the  dairy- 
farmer,  no  matter  how  skilfully  his  butter  may  have  been  made, 
or  how  high  the  market  price  of  the  day  for  the  best  product 
may  have  been.  I have  already  given  a sketch  of  the  first  pro- 
cess adopted  in  Denmark  for  converting  the  most  valuable  of  the 
dairy  “ offal  ” — skim-milk — into  a marketable  commodity  in  the 
form  of  skim-cheese.  But  there  still  remains  a considerable 
quantity  of  butter-milk  and  all  the  whey  to  be  dealt  with,  and 
in  Denmark  these  “ refuse  ” products  are  used  almost  entirely 
for  the  purpose  of  mixing  with  meal  as  a feeding-material 
for  pigs. 
Pigs  are  generally  fed  on  Danish  farms,  and  fed  off  at  from 
six  to  eight  months  old,  but  of  course  there  are  many  variations 
of  practice.  As  a rule,  a good  farmer,  who  sells  his  pigs  at 
about  seven  months  old,  weighing  160  to  180  lbs.,  or  a little  more, 
live-weight,  will  turn  off  as  many  pigs  per  annum  as  he  has  milch- 
cows.  This  is  considered  very  good  practice  if  skim-cheese  is 
also  made  as  already  described  ; and  it  is  by  no  means  unusual 
on  farms  where  no  more  calves  are  reared  than  are  necessary  to 
replace  cast  cows,  and  where  the  pigs  are  sold  at  the  age  and 
weight  just  indicated,  in  which  case  they  are  generally  killed  and 
cured  for  exportation  to  England. 
In  some  districts,  and  even  on  some  isolated  farms,  the  pigs 
are  kept  until  they  are  older,  heavier,  and  fatter,  and  then  of 
course  so  many  pigs  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  milch-cows 
cannot  be  fed  off.  These  larger  and  fatter  pigs  are  from  eight 
to  nine  months  old,  and  weigh  from  200  to  250  lbs.,  live-weight : 
they  are  invariably  sold  to  go  to  Hamburg,  whence  they  are 
sent  to  the  southern  districts  of  Germany,  where  fat  bacon  is  in 
better  request  than  in  most  districts  of  the  United  Kingdom. 
The  good  understanding  that  exists  between  the  Danish 
farmer  and  the  butter-merchant  prevails  to  some  extent  between 
the  former  and  the  pig-dealer,  who  is  generally  also  the  bacon- 
curer.  If  the  pigs  sent  are  too  fat  for  the  English  market,  or  if 
the  flavour  of  the  bacon  is  too  pronounced  in  consequence  of  the 
excessive  use  of  any  special  food,  not  only  is  the  price  given 
affected,  but  the  curer  or  dealer  gives  an  explanation  of  the 
reason  for  the  diminished  return,  and  offers  advice  with  a view 
to  the  improvement  of  the  quality  of  the  product  in  the  future. 
In  fact,  inferior  qualities  of  all  dairy  products,  especially  butter 
and  bacon,  have  a powerful  rival  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  ; 
but  first-rate  goods  are  scarcely  affected  by  American  com- 
petition. Therefore  it  pays  all  parties  concerned  to  help  the 
