asked the Minister for Agriculture if he is aware that owing to the present low prices for pigs, rapid depletion is taking place in the breeding stock of the Saorstát; whether his Department propose taking any steps to prevent this, such as making use of the Agricultural Instructors to educate the farmers by public meeting or otherwise on the necessity for preserving the pig-breeding stock of the country and the disastrous economic consequences of failing to do so.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - PIG-BREEDING.
Mr. HOGAN
I am aware that, owing to the small margin of profit on rearing and feeding of pigs, depletion is taking place in the breeding stock of the Saorstát. The whole matter is one to which the Department are giving, and have been giving, special attention. The Department have already issued detailed instructions to all the itinerant instructors in agriculture, who number a couple of hundred, calling their special attention to the present position of the pig-breeding industry, and urging upon them the importance of encouraging more economic methods of feeding and to arrange educational campaigns, the main objects of which are:—
1. The retention of an adequate stock of brood sows;
2. the prevention of the sale at a loss of immature and unfinished pigs by instructing farmers in the most economical methods of fattening young pigs now on hands and inducing them to change, where necessary, their systems of feeding;
3. increased production and utilisation of home-grown foods for pigs, and
4. the keeping of none but pigs of the most suitable types.