FEEDING SWINE 315 



thickness and depth of body, and being lighter in shoulder, neck 

 and jowl. There is less accumulation of fat and more lean and firm 

 meat than on the lard hog. While the latter hog is essentially a 

 product of corn, the bacon hog is produced where dairy products, 

 small grains, and leguminous feeds are readily available ; hence we 

 find some hogs of this type in eastern and northern States where 

 favorable feeding conditions exist for bacon production, and there 

 is apparently an increasing hpme demand for all bacon that is 



FIG. 86. A convenient self-feeder for supplying charcoal and mineral matter to pigs on 

 pasture. (Breeders' Gazette.) 



produced in this country. Bacon hogs are marketed at about 200 

 pounds live weight ; they should be only moderately fat, and a firm 

 quality of fat is essential in a first-grade article. Soft bacon is a 

 serious defect and is produced by a variety of causes. These have 

 been summarized as follows by Day : 25 



" 1. Lack of Maturity. Generally speaking, the more immature a hog 

 is, the greater the tendency to be soft. Almost invariably the largest per- 

 centage of softness occurs among the light sides of bacon. 



" 2. Lack, of Finish. Thin hogs have a marked tendency to produce 

 soft bacon. Marketing hogs before they are finished is, no doubt, respon- 

 sible for a great deal of softness. 



" 3. Unthriftiness in hogs, no matter what the cause may be, almost 

 invariably produces soft bacon. 



" 4. Lack of exercise has a tendency to produce softness, but this ten- 

 dency can be largely overcome by judicious feeding. 



" 5. Exclusive) meal feeding is perhaps one of the most common causes 

 of softness, especially when hogs are not given exercise. Some kinds of 

 meal are more injurious than others, but wherever exclusive meal feeding 

 is practised and the exercise is limited, more or less softness is always 

 sure to result. 



" 6. Corn. Of the grains in common use, corn has the greatest ten- 

 dency to produce softness. Its injurious tendency can be x modified by 

 mixing it largely with other meal or by feeding skim milk, green feed, and 

 roots, but its tendency to produce softness is so strong that it must be 

 regarded as an undesirable food for bacon hogs. 



25 " Productive Swine Husbandry," p. 134. 



