102 REPORT OF THE SCOTTISH COMMISSION 



mallet and then its throat was cut. Straw was burned round its 

 carcase to take the hair off. Hot water was applied and the skin 

 .scraped. It was hung up and disembowelled. After twenty-four 

 hours it was weighed and paid for as dead weight. How different 

 the methods are now. You see the pigs enter the factory. They 

 are run into a court to the number of eight or ten. A butcher 

 attaches a chain to the right hind leg of a pig, pulls another chain, 

 and the pig swings in mid-air from a sky railway, which runs 

 along the factory about five feet from the wall. The butcher, 

 who is an artist in his way, cuts a hole very deftly in the pig's 

 throat and slides it along the railway, the blood spurts out, 

 the pig squeals and shivers, the blood spurts again ; it is dead, 

 or ought to be, for it drops into a scalding pot. It is scraped 

 in a few seconds. Swung along the rails, it enters a singeing' 

 furnace. It comes out in water at the other end, is douched 

 twice, its internals removed, and is ready for the curing-house. 

 If you were to take a leisurely walk from the live pigs at 

 the one end to the carcases at the other, you might be out- 

 distanced by some pig on the road, which would be a carcase 

 when you arrived. The difierence in curing is equally great. In 

 the old days the carcase was laid out on a flag floor and salted, 

 and that was all. There was no artificial cold, and the work 

 could only be carried out in the winter months. The factories 

 usually commenced operations in October and finished in the 

 beginning of May. About 1860 this system was improved upon. 

 Ice was obtained and put in the centre of the curing shed in 

 crates. The Harris Patent Icehouse was the next development. 

 It consisted of a room with an iron floor supported by heavy 

 beams. Ice was placed on this floor, and the curing was done 

 in the cellars below, where the atmosphere was kept cold by the 

 ice above. These primitive methods were entirely superseded in 

 the year 1887 by the introduction of machinery for producing 

 cold by ammonia. No need now to stop working because of the 

 heat. In the hottest summer day it is bitterly cold in the curing 

 cellars, where salted sides are piled six layers high with no danger 

 of going bad. This invention was coincident with the introduction 

 of co-operative bacon-curing factories in Denmark, and no doubt 

 made the great development of the trade in Denmark possible. 

 It is said that the initial cost of introducing refrigerating 

 machinery in the curing-houses of the South of Ireland was 

 £100,000. We have no doubt that the money was well spent. 

 In any case, it was an absolute necessity if the Irish bacon-curers 

 were to compete with the curers in other parts of the world. 



Bye-Products 



In Ireland the manufacture of the bye-products of curing 

 establishments is an important part of the trade, important 

 alike to the manufacturer and to the public, for the manu- 

 facture of the bye-products employs a great many women. A 

 big trade is done, for example, in sausages for home consumption 



