356 NUTRITION OF FARM ANIMALS 



445. Influence of fattening on the composition of the lean 

 meat. While fattening consists largely in an increase of adi- 

 pose tissue in the ordinary sense, it has an important effect 

 both upon the composition of lean meat in the commercial 

 sense and upon that of the muscle tissue proper (fat-free 

 lean meat). 



Percentage 0} fat. What is commonly spoken of as lean 

 meat is by no means free from fat, since the term includes not 

 only muscular fibers themselves with the relatively little fat 



FIG. 37. The marbling of meat. Porterhouse steak from a prime steer. 

 (Illinois Experiment Station.) 



which they contain, but the masses of connective tissue of all 

 degrees of magnitude found between the muscle bundles and 

 between the separate muscles (86). Fattening, especially in- 

 tensive fattening, may cause a marked increase in the storage 

 of intramuscular fat in the lean meat, as is evident to the eye 

 in the so-called " marbling." 



Such analyses of lean meat as are recorded confirm the evi- 

 dence of the eye in this respect. A summary of the results on 

 this point has been given by the writer 1 elsewhere. The fol- 

 lowing example taken from that publication may serve to 

 illustrate the point in question. 



1 U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Anim. Indus., Bui. 108 (1908), p. 33. 



