;242 THE BACON CURING INDUSTRY. 



and even those who had no land at all, kept their pig, and in fact the pig 

 was often depended on for paying the rent. 



The entire number of pigs in Ireland, in i8^i, was 1,412,813 

 Of these there were owned by persons holding under 



one acre _ 355'977 



By those holding from one to five acres 2^4, ^^i^y 



By those holding from five to fifteen acres .... 342,436 



Making a total of 952,850 pigs owned by those holding under fifteen acres 

 each, and only 459,963 by those holding over fifteen acres. 



The effect of the failure of the potato was to prevent the production of pigs 

 and to force a sale of those on hand. The export of live pigs to England in 

 the year 1846 was 480,827, and the number of pigs in Ireland was reduced in 

 1848 to 565,629, the decrease being 847,184 animals. Of these 323,337 were 

 from the cottier class, each of whom held less than an acre ot land ; 223,882 

 were from those holding from one to five acres, and 260,882 from those who 

 held from five to fifteen acres of land each ; thus showing that the potato failure 

 had swept away the principal live stock of the poorer classes. 



There was at this time an increase in the number owned by those holding 

 over fifteen acres of land. Persons prophesied that the race of pigs would disap- 

 pear with the cottier class, but we shall find that it has not ; and on the contrary, 

 its production and fattening is now looked upon as a profitable branch of trade 

 by the farmer having larger holdings. During the four years from 1847 to 185 1, 

 the number of pigs in Ireland ir.creased steadily : in 1848 they were 565,629 ; in 

 1849, 795,463 ; and in 1850, 923,502. The export of live pigs during this 

 period was very short of the export of 1846. Thus, in 1847 it was 106,407 ; 

 in 1848, 110,787; in 1849,68,053; and in 1850, 109,170; the total exports for 

 the four years being 39^,417 pigs, while in 1846 alone the export of live pigs 

 was 480,872. 



" Confining our attention at present to the export of live pigs and the 

 annual produce of the country, w'e have returns which show a steady 

 increase in the export of live pigs, without reducing materially the stock, 

 as will appear by the following returns : — 



Date. 



185X 

 1S52 

 1853 

 1854 

 1S55 

 1856 

 1S57 

 1858 

 1859 

 i860 



"The natural inference from the foregoing figures would be, that as the 

 stock has not increased in proportion to the growth of the export trade, 

 there has been a falling off in the quantity of bacon prepared ; but in the 

 absence of absolute data we should be slow to adopt this conclusion, 

 especially when we find that the quantity of Irish bacon arriving in London 

 (which is the principal market) has been steadily increasing since 1851. 

 ^Ve should therefore rather attribute the increased exports to the earlier 

 maturity of pigs in consequence of the improvement of the breed, and to 

 the greater care bestowed upon them while young. 



