THE BACON CURING INDUSTRY. 245 



establishment discovered a method of applying ice in the process, 

 which has been wonderfully successful. This invention has conferred 

 material benefit on the Irish farmer, as he can now find a market 

 for his pigs through the entire year. 



" The pig requires a good deal of warmth while fattening in winter ; 

 this warmth has to be produced by food ; it follows that a much greater 

 quantity is necessary to bring up a pig to a given weight in winter than in 

 summer; consequently the summer feeding is the most profitable, and the 

 introduction of a mode of curing which enables the process to take place 

 in summer has proved a source of vast profit to the farmer, as well as a 

 great boon to the working men who now have constant employment in 

 place of the intermitting engagements of former times. The bacon which 

 is cured by ice is treated in this manner: — The flitches are carefully piled 

 in large tanks ; pickle, which has been brought to a given temperature by 

 the use of ice and salt, is then poured in, and as the temperature is raised 

 by the warmth of the atmosphere or of the article operated on, further 

 cooling is effected from time to time. The process in very warm 

 weather is more tedious and difficult than during the cooler part of the 

 summer. The ice-cured bacon is sound and firm, and, consequently, 

 much prized. The farmers in the south of Ireland have not been slow to 

 avail themselves of the opportunities offered by a summer market, and we 

 find that the proportion of pigs over twelve months old is much greater 

 in the southern counties than in the west or north of Ireland. 



"The returns are taken in the month of June, and the pigs which are 

 enumerated as being over twelve months old are, with the exception of 

 breeding sows, animals that will be killed in the summer and autumn 

 months. In June, 1859, when the return was taken, there were in Ireland 

 pigs over twelve months old, 322,982. 



Of these there were in Munster .... 150,097 

 ,, in County Kilkenny . . 10,515 



,, „ Wexford i-)97o 



Total in eight southern counties . . 173,582 



Leaving for the rest of Ireland .... 149,400 



" The very high price of pigs which prevailed in the spring of i860, and 

 the scarcity of food, reduced the stock of animals of the age under con- 

 sideration, and we find that in June, i860, there were in Ireland pigs over 

 twelve months old, 274,116. 



Of these there were in Munster .... 124,782 

 ,, in County Kilkenny . . 8,800 



,, ,, Wexford . . 10,096 



Total in eight southern counties . . 143,678 



Leaving for the rest of Ireland .... 130,438 



'* The above figures show very decisively the beneficial effect which the 

 system of summer curing by ice has had on the farming operations of the 

 south of Ireland. It enables the pig-farmer to economise food by fattening 

 these animals during the summer ; it offers to them the advantage of an 

 immediate sale as soon as the pig is ready for market, whereas, formerly, 

 they had to be fed until the usual winter season opened in October, though 

 the increase in weight was far from proportionate to the cost. The 



