Tropics

Bacon-Curing In The

Letter to the Editor

I READ with interest the article “Coconuts for Pigs” in the December “PIM”, describing how Mr, R. T.

Ricketts, a Fijian planter, is raising 250 pigs on his coconut estate. There is no doubt that coconuts, in green form, are good food for pigs—most of the surplus nuts are fed to pigs by natives in this part of New Guinea. One point, how ever—if copra is fed to animals, it should always be ground first.

The main problem associated with pig raising is to find a market. Another thing many planters would like to know is: Can bacon be made in a tropical climate without cold storage plant?

Would it be possible to supply cool stor age space merely by excavating a sort of underground shelter on the side of a hill?

In view of the extensive bacon industry in Queensland, it should be possible to produce bacon in the Territories, for pigs can be raised cheaply enough. I imagine the trouble would be to keep the bacon in good condition long enough for ship ment. Perhaps some “PIM” reader could supply his experience with this part of the bacon industry

I am, etc.,

Baconite.

New Ireland, TNG, 17/1/41.

Editorial Note

Inquiries by the “PIM” into the ques tion of cool storage reveal that the idea of an underground shelter is quite feas ible. In many parts of Australia, where there are no factory-curing facilities, farmers cure their own bacon during the

winter months, in cellars. The curing should be conducted in a humid atmos phere, with a regular temperature of from 40 to 45 deg. Fahr. Extremes of temperatures are unfavourable. The room should be perfectly clean, and as far removed as possible from any source of contamination, such as drains, rub bish, dust, etc. There should be efficient ventilation, so that the carcase may be exposed only to pure air, and the floor of the room—preferably concrete—must be such that it can be readily cleansed.

There is a wide market for properly cured bacon and Islands planters, once they have shown that they can produce good bacon, would have no more diffi culty in disposing of their product than have the farmers of New South Wales or Queensland. If bacon producers can not contact a market through their own merchants, they may write to us, and we will introduce them to an agent who can handle their business.

Mr. Eugene F. Paul, prominent Apia business man, whose interests include the Gold Star Transport Co. Ltd., returned to Western Samoa in February after a busi ness trip to New Zealand.

A son, Donald Glen, was born to Rev. and Mrs. L. A. McArthur, Methodist mis sionaries of Rabaul, New Guinea, on February 20.