THE BACON CURING INDUSTRY. 243 



"The subject under consideration naturally divides itself into three 

 branches :—ist, as to the annual production of pigs; 2nd, as to their 

 g'eographical distribution ; 3rd, as to the changes and improvements that 

 have taken place in the manufacture of provisions. 



•' In the first class there are a large number so young that they will not 

 be fit to kill within the year, the average age at which pigs are killed being 

 about fifteen months, consequently the available product of each year will 

 be less than the return by about one-fifth. In the return for 1859, the 

 number under twelve months old is stated at 942,769, and if one-fifth be 

 deducted for those under three months old it would leave 754,215 of this 

 class as the available produce of the year : in the other class, that over 

 twelve months old, the numbers are stated to be 322,982. Of these, about 

 one-third — say 100,000 — are breeding sows, but 222,982 would probably 

 be left for conversion into bacon, thus making the total annual produce 

 of pigs fit for sale at fifteen months old, 977,197. If the breeding stock 

 be 100,000 and the annual average produce ten for each sow, we shall 

 nearly arrive at the same result — viz., about one million pigs per annum. 

 The export of live pigs in 1859 was 368,275, thus leaving for the home 

 provision trade about 650,000 animals per annum. 



" We must not overlook the fact that pigs are the only description of 

 stock which is fattened and finished for the markets of Great Britain in 

 Ireland. There is a large export from Ireland of cattle and sheep, but the 

 bulk of these shipments are stores — that is, animals not fit for the butcher 

 and which go. to England to be finished. There are but a few fat oxen 

 and sheep shipped, while all the pigs which are exported are fit to kill ; 

 thus the provision trade confers vast benefit on the agricultural classes in 

 •oftering a ready market tor this finished produce. On an average, pigs at 

 twelve months old are worth about 40s. each ; they are then put in and 

 fed on corn food for two months or ten weeks, and then sold at an average 

 of ;£,3 loy. ; so that the farming classes receive about /^3, 500,000 per 

 iinnum from this branch of trade. 



" Secondly, as to the geographical distribution of pigs. The influence 

 x)f the large curing establishments of Waterford, Cork, Limerick, and 

 Belfa^5t, on the production of pigs is very great. The number of pigs in 

 Ireland, in i860, was 1,268,590; the area of the country is 20,815,111 

 acres, and on an average there was one pig to each sixteen acres of land. 

 In Waterford county there was one pig to each eight acres, being double 

 the average of the whole of Ireland ; in the neighbouring counties of 

 Kilkenny and Wexford the average was one pig to ten acres. Going 

 further, we find that in Cork, Tipperary, and Limerick, there was one pig 

 ,for twelve acres ; in Clare, one pig for twenty acres ; and in Kerry, one 

 pig tor twenty-two acres. These eight counties, containing 7,154,312 

 acres, had a pig population of 507,21 1, being at the rate of one pig to each 

 fourteen acres; while the rest of Ireland, having an area of 13,660,801, 

 .had only 7^1,379 pigs, being at the rate of one pig to each nineteen 

 acres. 



"' Waterford produces nearly two-thirds of the Irish bacon imported into 

 London, and the pigs supplied by the adjacent counties, Waterford, Kil- 

 -kenny, and Wexford, not being sufficient for the wants of the trade, 

 Waterford buyers attend the fairs in Carlow, Tipperary, Cork, and Lime- 

 ,rick, extending their journeys at times into the midland counties, into 

 Connaught. If pig-feeding be, as no doubt it is, profitable to farmers, it 

 follows that facility of access to the principal market is of great impor- 

 tance to them. The risk from delay, the loss of interest on the money 

 .employed, and the expenses of conveyance, have all to be calculated by 



