Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 November 1878 — The Pig in Agriculture. [ARTICLE]

The Pig in Agriculture.

The pig has recently been spoken of in contempt when compared with our other domestic animals. But if we examine his good qualities at all critically, we must award him a high place in our agriculture. The American people arc thought to consume more pork, bacon and ham per capita, than any other people. The products of the pig are a household necessity, and enter into almost universal consumption. If we suppose 76 pounds, per capita, to be used by our people of pig products, including lard, then our home con-, sumption amounts to at least 8,000,000,000 pounds, worth >150,000,000. The pig then holds a conspicuous place in the food supply of the Nation. But when we examine it as a factor in our exports, we find it to stand at the head of all our domestic animals. A few years ago wedid not put up our hams and bacon to suit English taste, and our average export of these articles amounted- in iponev to only >6,000,000 annually. But after studying the taste of our principal customer, and getting the assistance of some English houses in putting up the goods, our exports of nog during the fiscal year 187 ft these exports were as follows: Live hose••••••• Bacon and hams. 89,684,456 Pork 5,744,022 Larda- 22.429.486 Lard oil. .'.’..-r M 9.166 Total. ..vi . .....................eaMMAS ' In 1877 these products reached the sum of >82,352,222, an increase of over >18,000,000 in a single year. But the items of the last fiscal year, ending June 30,1878, were the following: tetSa-iSi:-.;;:::,:: .SS® Lard; ... .-.-.“. .7. -;rt »i,014.023 P0rk. k ....l 4.913,646 Laid oilA 994.440 W ->•••- - • ■ A •••••■•■ • • • • WhB».BW

product* ex* Krtdt the,BameyMr amounted to 9,.31)8,0891 and this includes all our meat tptde find dairy jJroduota, the latter being MM.i62.487f K> that the cxportrbf our* dairy prodDcU, amount to but little more titan one-fifth as much as those of pur pig products, and the whore cattit ex]X>rts only amount to 56-100 of the pir exports. Those export figures of pig products show what we may do in a four yMb mor<. They have doubled in less than ten years, and we may reasonably expect them to reach $125,000,000 during the next ten years. We have ample resources for growing and fattening pigs in unlimited numbers and can supply the demand, however much it may increase. And since we can produce pork, bacon and hams cheaper than any other country, We are likely to have the command of the markets. The pig is found to produce a pound of product from lete food than either cattle or sheep, and therefore is the most economical machine to manufacture onr great corn crop into marketable meat. Our people are becoming wiser eWery year, and exporting less, proportionately, of the raw material and more of the condensed product. If it takes seven pounds of corn, on an average, to make a pound of pork, as is no doubt the case, the farmer begins to see the great economy of one pound of pork, bacon or ham, instead of seven pounds of corn. The difference in cost of freight makes a fine profit, of itself; beside the pound of meat is usually worth more than •even pounds of corn in the foreign market.

The production of pork should be encouraged on the further consideration that it carries off less of the valuable constituents of the soil than beef. The fat pig contains only three-fourths as much mineral matter per cwt. as the fat steer, and only two-fifths as much nitrogen per cwt. And therefore the produetion of a ton of pork on the farm will carry off only a little more than half the fertility carried off by a ton of beef; beside a ton of beet will require nearly 50 per cent, more food to produce it. This gives, in round numbers, the comparative effect of producing pork and beef. It is thus evident that the pig should have a high place in our agriculture; should be fostered in every way— his capabilities studied and pushed—his diseases carefully noted and prevented, for he i» toe-mostprofitable meat-pro-ducing animal on the farm. The pig is an excellent adjunct to the dairy, turning all the refuse milk, and even whey into cash. As he is king of our meat exports, so let us treat him with great consideration. — Rural New Yorker. Soon oomee the time of driving mow. When ice skims o'er the surface Ofpond and lake—the time, you know. To wrestle with the furnace. —Boston Transcript.