REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 373 



looks and smells and tastes like good creamery butter. Some of the 

 members of the wealthy firms engaged in its manufacture boast that 

 they serve no other product at their private tables. 



LARD. 



There are three grades of lard. 



1. Prime steam lard. This is the leaf fat of hogs, and the selected 

 fat trimmings, cooked in a closed tank, by wet steam, at a pressure 

 of from 35 to 40 pounds, for from twelve to sixteen hours, after which 

 the tank is allowed to settle and the lard is drawn off, 



2. Pure kettle-rendered lard. This consists of the fat backs and 

 other trimmings of hogs, rendered in an open kettle, and agitated 

 while cooking to prevent burning. 



3. Refined lard.' This is a compound production. It includes, 

 besides a certain proportion of the higher grades of hog fats, the 

 lard stearin left in the extracting of lard oil from leaf lard, the set- 

 tlings and scrapings from the kettles from which the neutral lard is 

 made, and all available fat tissues of the hog, to which are added 

 the beef stearin obtained in the manufacture of pleo oil and a certain 

 quantity of double-refined cotton-seed salad oil. The preparation 

 of this product involves the employment of a somewhat complicated 

 arrangement of steam jackets, hot-air agitators, settling-kettles, fil- 

 ters, and other machinery. 



The completed product of the third grade is sold for what it is a 

 compound lard ; but the first two grades are inspected by the Board 

 of Trade, and branded with a certificate of their purity before being 

 put upon the market. 



TRICHINIASIS AND HOG CHOLERA. 



It only remains to speak of the questions whether the parasites 

 found in trichinous hogs can be transmitted in a living state in the 

 pork exported to European countries by the United States, and 

 whether the flesh of animals dying of hog cholera or swine plague 

 is ever converted into a food product. 



On these points official investigations of an exhaustive character 

 have been had, As a preliminary step the Department of State, in 

 March, 1881, prosecuted an examination into the various phases of 

 the^pork industry in the Western States, covering all possible causes 

 which could operate to render the products dangerous to health. 

 The President of the United States, October 3, 1883, appointed a 

 commission of impartial scientists and representatives of the New 

 York Chamber of Commerce and the Chicago Board of Trade, in- 

 structing them "to make a searching examination on the spot of all 

 the conditions of the hog-raising and pork-packing industries of the 

 United States, and to follow by the most practical examination the 

 course of this food staple from the fields and farms to the wharf 

 where it is shipped, or to the shop where it is exposed for domestic 

 consumption." The results of these investigations were communi- 

 cated to ^ Congress by the Executive, accompanied by voluminous 

 diplomatic correspondence, and other information bearing on the sub- 

 ject.* From the official data thus presented, which remain uncon- 



*Ex. Doc. No. 209,47th Congress, first session. Senate Report No. 345,48th 

 Congress, first session, embracing Ex. Doc. No. 70, 48th Congress, first session. 



