66 
The Breeding and^ Feeding of Pigs. 
to be approached mainly from two points, viz., that of the 
producers and that of the consumers, in other words from the 
farmers’ and from the butchers’ standpoint. It should be the 
object of the breeder to produce a saleable pig which will 
always command the top price in the market, and will also 
help the butcher or bacon curer to produce a commodity which 
will compare favourably both in price and quality with the 
vast amount of imported foreign goods which so readily find 
their way into the British market. At the same time the pig 
selected must also have the most important qualities of thrifti- 
ness and early maturity, which alone can make the business 
a profitable one to the feeder. In order, then, to be able to 
combine these qualities we must first consider what is the 
butcher or bacon curer’s idea of what a pig should be. Any- 
one conversant with the pig market is aware that nearly all the 
pigs offered for sale are bought mainly by two classes of 
customers, either for the bacon curing trade, or by the 
wholesale pork butchers and provision merchants of the 
populous centres of the Midlands and North of England. The 
bacon curers require a pig of between 9 to 13 stone (14 lbs.) 
dead weight with a small proportion of back fat, deep in the 
flank, large hams, but small in the bone and fore quarters, and 
one which to all appearances looks like what is commonly 
called a half-finished pig. 
The wholesale houses of the North and Midlands prefer for 
the most part a much fatter pig with a good back and flank, 
and weighing anything from 12 to 16 stone dead weight. A 
heavy head and shoulders as in the case of the bacon curers’ 
pig is not desirable, but the animal should have a well-finished 
appearance. 
So much, then, from the consumer’s point of view, let us 
now turn to the producers. There are only about three weeks in 
a pig’s life when it can be considered an ideal bacon pig, and 
as the curing trade is rather fickle, depending very much on 
the Irish supply of pigs, and also on the bacon trade, it is as 
well not to pay too much attention to this part of the market, 
but to try and produce such a pig as would be suitable for the 
curing trade, should this be good when the pig arrives a.t the 
proper size, and yet it should also have sufficient length, frame, 
and growth, to be profitable to feed on, for the heavier weights 
required for the North. The other main points to aim at are 
thriftiness and early maturity. Formerly, when corn was 
much dearer than it is now, pigs were allowed to ru:; to grass 
for some months, and, in fact, they do now in Ireland, and 
some parts of this country. This certainly helped to produce 
lean bacon, but it also made them coarse and heavy of bone*, 
and the practice has mostly died out in favour of early 
