554 



FARMER'S CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK 



good. In shipping different types of 

 hogs to England the Iowa experiment 

 station found that the breeds most de- 

 sirable for the production of English 

 bacon are the Tamworth and Berkshire. 



The Canadian experiment stations 

 have made extensive investigations to 

 determine what the characteristics of 

 firm bacon are and how to produce it. 

 The bacon trade of England demands a 

 firm product. Soft bacon brings only 

 secondary prices and cannot be exported 

 from this country at a profit. Soft 

 bacon and fat bacon are not synonymous 

 terms. In fact, softness is more likely 

 to develop in lean, underfed pigs than 

 in well fed fat hogs. According to 

 Shutt, softness is easily determined by 

 the touch alone and is plainly visible 

 when firm and soft sides are hung on the 

 hooks together, the "drag" of the soft 

 sides on the hooks being much greater 

 than that of the firm sides. When also 

 firm and soft sides are lifted from a 

 table by either end, the firm bacon re- 

 mains fairly straight, while the soft 

 one doubles up more or less. Day states 

 that the softness in bacon develops while 

 it is in the salt and that when the bacon 

 is taken out of the salt the fat is soft and 

 spongy. The value of the bacon is re- 

 duced in proportion to the degree of 

 softness. 



In the beginning of the investigations 

 into soft bacon at the Canadian stations, 

 two sides of bacon, one of which was 

 classed by the trade as "firm" and of 

 excellent quality and the other "soft" 

 and of poor quality, were analyzed. The 

 olein content or liquid portion of the 

 fat from the firm bacon averaged about 

 64 per cent and in the soft bacon about 

 80 per cent of the fat. The melting 

 point of the fat in the firm bacon aver- 

 aged about 37.6° C, and the soft bacon 

 27.4° C. The olein content of the fat 

 and the melting point were therefore 

 taken as a standard by which to judge 

 firmness or softness of the meats made 

 on different kinds of feed. It was early 

 discovered that breed has but little to do 

 with firm pork, since firm bacon from 

 pigs of the lard type and soft bacon 

 from pigs of the bacon type were fre- 

 quently obtained. It was also discovered 

 that the fat of young or immature pigs 

 (pigs weighing less than 100 pounds) 

 contained a relatively high percentage 

 of olein and was considerably softer than 

 the fat of more mature pigs killed at a 

 weight of 180 to 200 pounds. 



The results of the investigations show 

 clearly that the controlling factor in the 

 quality of the pork lies primarily in the 

 character of the food employed. The 

 firmest pork in the stations' experiments 

 were produced on a mixture of peas, oats 

 and barley in equal parts. Corn and 

 beans both tended to produce a soft 

 pork. Beans produced the softest pork 

 of all. Skim milk when used with the 

 different rations produced a much firmer 

 fat in every instance than when the same 

 grain ration was fed without it. Ex- 

 clusive corn feeding, for a somewhat ex- 

 tended period, produced bacon of an ex- 

 tremely soft and undesirable character. 

 No evil effects were noted from its use 

 when fed to fattening hogs that had 

 had plenty of exercise until they had 

 reached about 100 pounds live weight or 

 had been fed skim milk with a mixed 

 grain ration until they had reached 100 

 pounds live weight. The softening ef- 

 fects of corn, which were quite pro- 

 nounced in nearly every experiment, 

 were in a large measure counteracted 

 by the use of skim milk. 



"When oats, barley and peas (equal 

 parts) were fed until the pigs weighed 

 100 pounds and then corn used to finish 

 the fattening period a much poorer qual- 

 ity of pork was produced than when the 

 reverse method of feeding was observed. 

 Cooking the feed seemed to slightly in- 

 crease the softness of the fat. The qual- 

 ity of the meat w?s not affected by giv- 

 ing the feed wet rather than dry. Fin- 

 ished pigs from the western part of 

 Ontario were not found to yield softer 

 pork when fed the same foods than hogs 

 of eastern origin. Such succulent feeds 

 as rape, pumpkins, artichokes, sugar 

 beets, turnips and mangels were success- 

 fury fed in the different rations without 

 injuring the quality of the pork pro- 

 duced. 



Hogs confined in pens and fed wheat 

 middlings during the early stages of 

 growth and finished off on peas, barley 

 and shorts, had a marked tendency to- 

 wards softness. When these same foods 

 were given, but the hogs allowed to have 

 plenty of exercise, much firmer bacon 

 was produced. The evil effect of lack of 

 exercise was largely overcome by the use 

 of skim milk and whey. From 2 to 2 1 /2 

 pounds of whey is recommended for 

 each pound of grain fed. 



Barley alone has given good gains and 

 produced remarkably firm bacon. When 



