280 THE STOCKFEEDER'S COMPANION 



carbohydrates, e.g., barley meal, pea and bean meal, etc. 

 Kellner found that pigs kept in cold surroundings 

 produce an oily fat, while a firmer fat was produced 

 when pigs were kept warmer. A warm, comfortable 

 box is therefore a very important point. 



Soft Bacon may be produced by feeding large 

 quantities of roots or other green foods during the later 

 stages of fattening. These make the proportion of fat 

 to lean too large, and at the same time give a soft flesh. 



Generally speaking, concentrated foods containing 

 5 per cent, or over of fat give a soft bacon when they 

 are fed alone to pigs. A very common example is 

 maize meal, which gives a soft, yellowish fat. Professor 

 Henry states that the lard of pigs fed on maize may 

 contain 92 per cent, olein (liquid fat), while that from 

 similar pigs fed on ground oats, pea and barley meals, 

 may only contain 67 per cent, olein. Maize meal, 

 however, gives rapid increases in live weight, and 

 where the purchaser is unwilling to give more per 

 pound for high quality bacon, its use will naturally be 

 continued for bacon production. 



Other pig-foods fairly rich in oil, are linseed cake, 

 rice meal, wheat bran, brewers' grains, distillery waste, 

 oatmeal, fish, etc. These should not usually constitute 

 more than a quarter to a third of the total meals fed, 

 the remainder consisting of meals which are low in oil. 



Soft bacon may also be caused by keeping the pigs 

 short of exercise, marketing them before they are 

 finished, too long after finishing, or by undue forcing. 



The Wiltshire experiments showed that cooked 

 potatoes and maize meal decreased the proportion of 

 best pigs. Neither in the Wiltshire nor Kilmarnock 

 experiments did maize alone give such a high propor- 

 tion of best pigs as barley meal. 



