Pig farming

“ In the Southern counties tares, lucerne, and grass are sufficiently forward towards the end of April to be cut and fed to the pigs which are confined in the buildings. The pigs both fat and store will fully repay the cost of labour in the cutting and carting of these vegetable foods. Brood sows both in pig and with litters dependent on them, should be allowed their liberty in the grass fields. This will both greatly reduce the cost of keep and tend to their thrift and well doing. Young pigs over a month old should have a run out both morning and afternoon. ”

“ The practice of growing considerable areas of rape or cole seed, artichokes, peas of various kinds, beans, etc., to be fed off by pigs is not followed extensively in this country, although pig-keepers in the United States, Canada, Germany, Denmark, etc., have a partiality to it, since it is declared to save labour and to bring the land into a good manurial condition for the growth of corn crops ”

“ It may at once be frankly admitted that a very considerable increase in the number of our pig population is possible without any very greatly extended cost of food, but when it is contended that farmers and even cottagers are grossly neglectful in not producing sufficient pork and its products for the use of the whole of the population of these islands, an injustice is done, as the breeding and [Pg 173] feeding of pigs is a business calling, not a philanthropical pursuit. Farmers and cottagers are like other manufacturers of necessary articles ”

“ College had just closed (we were having our 17th of June peas) and the joy of the farm was upon me. I had a cow and a heifer, eighty-six hens, three kinds of bantams, ten hives of bees, and two ducks. I was planning to build a pigeon coop, and had long talked of turning the nine-acre ridge of sprout land joining my farm into a milch goat pasture, selling the milk at one dollar a quart to Boston babies; I had thought somewhat of Belgian hares and black foxes as a side-line; and in addition to these my heart was set on a pair of pigs.
"Why won't one pig do?" she would ask. ”

“ In the same close neighborhood, also, should be a small pigsty, to accommodate a pig or two, to eat up the kitchen slops from the table, refuse vegetables, parings, dishwater, &c., &c., which could not well be carried to the main piggery of the farm, unless the old-fashioned filthy mode of letting the hogs run in the road, and a trough set outside the door-yard fence, as seen in some parts of the country, were adopted. A pig can always be kept, and fatted in three or four months, from the wash of the house, with a little grain, in any well-regulated farmer's family. ”

“ He does no harm to the field if not left there too long and it does good to him. In fattening pigs corn is freely given. It is not best to give corn alone, but it makes a good dessert after he has had the run of the pasture or clover field, and is the best fattener when he is being put in order for the market.
In visiting a farm the pig-pen is one of the things we are shown. It is not a pleasant place for a morning call, for the smell is not a sweet perfume and the mire in which the pig rolls is not nice. We are apt to go away with the feeling that this animal is a dirty brute. ”

“ But the difficulty is yet to obtain sufficient pigs of first quality to make the curing industry a success. Throughout the temperate zone of South America the climatic conditions are quite favourable to pig-raising; and food in the shape of maize and alfalfa is abundant at relatively small cost. When pigs and poultry receive the care which is now acknowledged to be necessary to, and given for, the best results from cattle, horses and sheep, River Plate poultry and pig produce will loom large on the markets of the world, besides supplying a daily increasing local demand. ”

“ The chief difficulty attending this system is not experienced in the United States to the extent it is in this country, since the general custom there is to allow each sow to farrow a litter of pigs in the spring and then to fatten off both sow and pigs, save those reserved for breeding purposes next year. This plan, which appears to be wasteful, also handicaps the owner who desires to improve his pig stock, since an opportunity is denied him of discovering the best of his sows and so reserving them and their produce to form the nucleus of a really good herd. ”

“ We breed and fatten a large number of pigs on the clearings round the shanty. These we butcher in batches of six or eight, as required, and turn into salt pork, bacon, and ham. We have occasionally sent a cask or two of pork, some flitches or hams, to market; but as a rule we consume our pigs on the farm. Pig-meat is most reliable as a staple. One does not tire of it so utterly as one does of either mutton or beef, if one of these be the invariable daily food.
Beef we rarely see in our shanty. The steers we breed are too valuable to be used by ourselves; they have to go to market. ”

“ That we can find a market for an increased production of pork and bacon is certain. Last year, we paid the foreigner—and chiefly the Yankee—some three millions sterling for dead pig-meat, sent to us in the shape of hams, bacon, and pork. There is no reason why we should not this season increase our breeding-herds of swine and make some attempt to wrest from the foreigner this market. It lies at our doors; and the pig himself is perhaps the most profitable of all the meat-making machinery of the farm. The fecundity of the pig is such that the breeding-stock may be increased almost at will. ”

“ It may not be possible to claim that the over feeding of show animals is a thing of the past, but there is little doubt that exhibitors of pigs have become alive to the fact that it is not profitable. Not only is the expense excessive, but the damage done to the breeding animals is so great as to render it inadvisable for any ordinary farmer to follow. Again, there has of late years been a very considerable improvement in the pig classification at both the breeding and the fat stock shows. ”

“ Under the modern system of pig-keeping it is more profitable to give some additional and concentrated food to the pigs having their liberty, it is therefore wise to secure the full benefit arising from the richer living by running the pigs where the manure can be utilised, and no better place than an orchard can be found, since shelter from sun and wind is furnished by the fruit trees, and the pigs deposit their urine and excrement in exactly the place where it is most urgently required. ”

“ Another alleged new discovery is the permitting of pigs to roam at large in woods and plantations, wooden huts or open sheds being provided as shelter. By this plan a considerable amount of pig food is obtained where the trees are not closely planted, so that grass grows freely, or, in the autumn, in the woods in which oaks, beech, hazel, or sweet chestnut form a portion of the trees. ”

“ There is fishing at Chenies (vide an admirable essay of Mr Froude’s) in the early summer, a visit to Switzerland in the later, and in September “the pigs are grown very large and handsome, and experts advise their conversion into bacon.” But Mrs Arnold “does not like the idea.” Indeed this is the drawback of pig-keeping, which is otherwise a most fascinating pastime; but you can escape it, and unite pleasure with profit, by merely breeding the pigs and selling the litters young. ”

“ Wherever there are cows and a garden, pigs should be kept; as skim-milk and buttermilk, with the refuse of a garden, are almost sufficient to maintain a pig. Pigs are unlike most other animals, as they fatten soonest on sour food; they should, however, be kept clean, and in many places, I am told, the cottagers rub them with a broom. Sows are very apt to destroy their young when they are littered with long straw, as the pigs sometimes hide themselves in it for warmth, and are trodden upon accidentally or smothered by their mother. ”

“ In either case these cheap detached pens may be not only satisfactory, but they will serve to fit into a system of pig-raising which may be carried on at the minimum of labor and expense and supplementary foods. By means of a tank or barrel mounted on wheels the animals may be fed, either once or twice daily, in large troughs placed in the pasture. This system presupposes ample areas of grass and woodland, which should furnish not only a healthful run for the animals but much food for them. ”

“ The methods adopted on the irrigation farm of Messrs. Jacob and Kennedy, at Nannulla, show that pig raising is a leading factor in their success. Mr. Jacob demonstrated that $192 per acre a year can [Pg 16] be realised from pigs reared almost wholly on lucerne, for half an acre suffices for the sustenance of a brood sow and her progeny of about 20 per annum till they are fit for market. Well-bred animals pay best, especially in the case of the sire, for which a Yorkshire is recommended. ”

“ Many families in the villages and on the outskirts of cities also should consider the advisability of keeping a pig, if sanitary regulations permit. In most cases, however, it will be profitable to keep a pig only when a sufficient surplus from the household and the garden is available to furnish a considerable portion of the pig's food. ”

“ In Germany, where one gets not only hams of the best quality, but excellent roast pork, many others besides farmers have taken to raising pigs. In 1873 there were only 7,124,088 pigs in the country; in 1907 there were over 22,000,000. The number of sheep has decreased in about the same proportion because three hogs can be raised by a peasant where he could not graze one sheep.
Pigs are particularly profitable because they can be fed largely on kitchen refuse and unsalable skim milk and because a pig "will produce a pound of meat from a far less weight of food than will either sheep or cattle." ”

“ As to pigs, they are great plagues on a newly-cleared farm if you cannot fat them off hand; and that you cannot do without you buy food for them, which does not answer to do at first. If they run loose, they are a terrible annoyance both to your own crops and your neighbour’s, if you happen to be within half a mile of one, for though you may fence out cattle you cannot pigs: even poultry require something more than they pick up about the dwelling to be of any service to you, and are often taken off by hawks, eagles, foxes, and pole-cats, till you have proper securities for them. ”

“ It is certain that a more economical system will have to be followed, and one of the means of effecting this may be a return to the keeping of pigs during their growing stage on the house and garden refuse, and then when the pigs have been fattened, by the killing and curing of the carcase for home consumption. ”

“ The pigs also usually leave their droppings under the trees, which are thus benefited therefrom, and especially is this the case where the pigs are being fattened or fed on food which enables them to make flesh. Many years since, the writer had several customers for breeding pigs who kept numbers of pigs in their orchards. One fruit grower in Kent declared that fattening pigs in his orchard resulted in the growing of heavier crops of cherries of larger size, better colour, and finer flavour. ”

“ The 150 little pigs made but a small showing in this great house, which was intended to shelter six hundred of all sizes, from the eight-weeks-old baby pig to the nine-months-old three-hundred-pounder ready for market.
Pigs destined for market never leave this house until ripe for killing. At six or seven months a few are chosen to remain on the farm and keep up its traditions ”

“ Of course, the soil, climate, etc., of the district in which pigs are reared have a certain amount of influence, but this is noticeable to a much lesser extent with pigs than with horses, cattle, or sheep, since under the present system of pig-breeding the greater portion of the food used in the different districts is of a very similar character—indeed, much of it has a common origin—having been imported from abroad. ”

“ Undoubtedly it would have been wiser to have permitted the keeping of pigs within a much shorter distance of the house only so long as the necessary steps were taken to prevent a nuisance or a risk of the residents in the house suffering in health. The proximity of a pigsty to a house can be rendered perfectly innocuous with ordinary care, and the cottager not be deprived of very considerable advantages not only in making a profit, but in the provision of manure for his allotment or garden which will benefit greatly from its application. ”

“ Another of the great advantages possessed by some of our foreign competitors is the very much better supply of feeding stuffs and their very considerably lower cost. Take the United States, for instance, the enormous supply of maize alone enables American pigmen to manufacture pork at a cost which enables the packers to land bacon, hams, and lard on the British shores which our home pig producers cannot approach. ”

“ There are few animals more useful than the pig. He will eat anything, live anywhere, and almost every particle of him, from the tip of his nose to the end of his tail, is capable of being converted into a saleable commodity. Your pig also is a great producer of manure, and agriculture is after all largely a matter of manure. Treat the land well and it will treat you well. With our piggery in connection with our Farm Colony there would be no lack of manure.
With the piggery there would grow up a great bacon factory for curing, and that again would make more work. ”