CHAPTER XXIV 

 THE HOG CARCASS 



A comparative study of the importance of the various kinds of 

 meat in American, EngHsh, French, and German dietaries discloses the 

 fact that civiHzation is greatly dependent upon the hog and its products. 

 The following table gives the annual per capita consumption of the 

 various kinds of meat in the four countries mentioned, and shows the 

 large contribution of the hog to the meat supply: 



Per capita consumption of meat in four countries 



' In addition to the above, the consumption of horse flesh amounted to about 1 pound per capita 

 in France, and in Germany 1.9 pounds of goat, horse, and dog meat was consumed per capita. 



The British are well known to be partial to beef in their meat 

 dietary, and the Germans to pork, and this is amply substantiated by 

 the table; nevertheless it is seen that the people of the United States 

 consume more beef than the British and more pork than the Germans. 

 The British, however, consume more mutton per capita than any other 

 nationality, and the French come first with veal. The figures show 

 that the consumption of pork, as compared with the consumption of 

 beef, is greater than might be supposed. Americans and Germans con- 

 sume more pork than beef, but the table shows a different proportion 

 for the English and French. These variations may be due to differ- 

 ences in the way appetites have been cultivated in the various countries, 

 or to differences in the quantities of pork produced and the cost of it. 



In the total slaughter (federally inspected and all other slaughter) 

 of beef, veal, mutton, lamb, and pork in the United States, excluding 

 lard, beef and veal constituted 43.7 per cent of the total weight in 1922, 

 mutton and lamb only 3.1 per cent, and pork 53.2 per cent. ^ 



^Computed from Meat Production, Consumption, and Foreign Trade in United 

 States, 1907-1922, U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Anim. Indus., Mimeographed Report, by 

 John Roberts. 



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