FEEDING FOR MEAT 379 



tion has offered more encouraging inducements to the 

 home consumption of grain than has beef production. 



472. Changes in pork production. — ^Within recent 

 years there has been a great change in the methods of 

 pig-feeding and in the character of the animal when 

 placed upon the market. This is emphatically true of 

 the eastern and middle states, where pork is grown wholly 

 for local consumption. Formerly good feeders were not 

 supposed to slaughter a pig under 300 pounds carcass 

 weight, and many animals dressed 400 pounds when 

 taken to the market, this size being secured only after a 

 feeding period of twelve to eighteen months. Pork of this 

 character was regarded as well adapted to packing. At 

 the present time the demand of the local markets is for 

 small carcasses weighing not over 150 pounds, and sup- 

 plying the maximum proportion of lean cuts. This change 

 is in the direction of greater profits for the farmer because 

 the food expenditure required for the production of small 

 carcasses Is much less a unit of weight than under the old 

 system, when the feeding was continued during a longer 

 period. Pigs properly fed are now wisely turned off at 

 the age of a few months, excepting, perhaps, in those 

 localities where a slow early growth is cheaply secured on 

 pasturage. 



473. Character of the growth in pork production. — ^The 

 modern hog is emphatically a fat-producing organism, 

 having a capacity in this particular greatly surpassing 

 any other species of domestic animal. The dry matter 

 of the carcasses of individual animals has been found to 

 consist of over 80 per cent of fat, even after the leaf lard 

 was removed, and the average proportion in the dry sub- 

 stance of eight dressed pigs, representing six breeds, was 

 found by Wiley to be 78 per cent. 



