164 



Journal of Agriculture , \ ictoria. [10 March, 1912. 



are landed at the receiving platform where they are weighed alive, and 

 the suppliers can be paid on that basis at once, if they so desire. The 

 dead weight is ascertainable usually the day following delivery, and aver- 

 ages about 25 per cent. less. 



After weighing, the pigs are driven into sties, allowed to remain over- 

 night and usually killed next morning. They are driven one by one 

 into the catching pen, where they are shackled or caught up by means of 

 leg chains, a running noose being formed by means of a chain slipped 

 through a ring ; this noose is passed over one hind foot. The chain is 

 then attached to a hook at the end of n steel rope which is governed by 

 hand or power 

 hoist. Hoisted to 

 overhead bar in this 

 position, they are 

 slaughtered by stick- 

 ing in the direction 

 of the heart, letting 

 the blood out 

 quickly. This opera- 

 tion does not take 

 more than one 

 minute. 



The carcases are 

 pushed along the 

 overhead bar to the 

 bleeding passage 

 and allowed to hang 

 some little time, and 

 are then pushed off 

 the bar on to the 

 dumping table. This 

 dumping table 

 forms part of what 

 is known as a 

 slaughtering tack, 

 which is the main 

 part of the pig abat- 

 toir. While on the 

 dumping table, the 

 leg chains are re- 

 moved, and the car- 

 cases are then rolled 

 into a rectangular 

 scalding vat capable of holding some five pigs at once. The vat is partially 

 filled with water at about 180 deg. F., and the carcases are turned round 

 and round until the hair becomes loose. One by one, they are then tilted 

 on to a scuttling table where they are scraped almost free from hair. A 

 hook is inserted into the apex of the lower jaw, and the animals suspended 

 to the track bar head upwards. They are pushed along this bar until they 

 come under the opening of a vertical singeing furnace, which is so con- 

 structed that the carcase of the pig may be hoisted through a circular fire, 

 and so the whole carcase is burned or singed. This operation takes only a 

 quarter of a minute, and the carcase is again lowered to the track bar, pre 



5. PIGS HANGING UNDER SINGER. 



