THE BACON CURING INDUSTRY. 255 



to reduce it to the temperature of the air. It is then cloven in two. The 

 liead having been taken off. the sides are sent into the chill room, in which 

 they are hung at a temperature approximating to ireezing point for another 

 twenty hours. From this the sides are sent to the curing cellars, where they 

 are first " pumped," as it is called. This consists of injecting into the 

 thicker portions of the meat, through a strong hollow needle, a strong pickle 

 consisting of salt and saltpetre. The sides are then piled six layers high, 

 salt being spread between them particularly on the flank and thinner por- 

 tions which have not been injected with brine. The temperature of the 

 chill room or curing cellars is maintained at about 42° F., and the sides are 

 left in them for some fourteen days, when they are taken out of the salt, 

 wiped and packed in bales containing four sides each, and shipped to 

 London or other markets. When " smoked bacon " is required, it is usually 

 smoked by the wholesale buyers to whom it is sold. Bacon of this class, if 

 " smoked " on this side of the Channel, would lose considerably in appear- 

 ance through rough usage 111 transit. The Berwick pigs, killed for the 

 Irish trade, are treated pretty much in the same way as we have described 

 up to a certain point ; the difference being that the pig is put into a cauldron 

 of scalding water, after which the hair is scraped off. The singeing in a 

 furnace is not done. The sides are cut into hams, middles, shoulders or 

 fore-ends, and are finished and smoked in the factories in which they are 

 cured. They are not pumped or injected with pickle, the hams in par- 

 ticular never being treated in this way, being entirely what is termed dry salt 

 cured. The curing of hams takes a much longer time to finish than the 

 other portions of the pig. 



The bye-products form a very importsnit portion of the trade, nearly 

 every portion of the carcase being turned to some useful purpose. Sausage 

 and pudding making in the curing house form a little industry in themselves, 

 employing a large number of women ; while tinned meats, such as brawn, 

 ham and chicken, etc., are also made, principally for export. The livers are 

 shipped to Germany, there to be made into liver sausages, esteemed a great 

 delicacy in that countr\', but not generally appreciated by the people of the 

 United Kingdom. They are also used in the minufacture of sauces. The 

 sweetbreads or pancreas are utilised by manufacturing chemists in the 

 making of pepsine. 



Judging from the steady decrease in the killing cf pigs for the past twelve 

 years, it would seem that Ireland is losing its hold on this, one of its most 

 important industries ; thus 1 educing an area which gives employment to a 

 host of operatives, male and female, along with Mgbuyers, pig drovers, etc. 

 Were it not for the money spent by the Irish curers in improving the 

 quality of the breed of swine in Ireland, there is no doubt that Irish bacon 

 would have ere this lost its prestige. It is, however, to be hoped that the 

 trade will share in the better times looked forward to under the auspices 

 of our new Department of Agriculture, and again attain to, if not exceed, 

 the proportions it did in i8go. 



Before long the County Councils, bacon curers, and others interested in 

 the improvement of swine, will be face to face %■ ith the necessity of pro- 

 viding new and totally fresh blood for the country, as it must be borne in 

 mind that the breeding of nearly all the Large White Yorkshire pigs in the 

 kingdom is in the hands of but a few persons, thus rendering it not improb- 

 able that " in-and-in breeding " may, within a brief period, cause serious 

 deterioration to the breeds of pigs that are now rapidly approaching a state 



