io4 Belgrade Pork and Bacon Curing Industry. 



The owner of the stock provides the necessary service and 

 food, though the company are under the obligation always to 

 have a sufficiency of maize meal on hand. 



The veterinary inspection, which is obligatory on the arrival 

 of the animals, at the owner's expense, costs is. yd. for fifty head 

 and 2 paras a head, or one penny, for every five over that number. 

 The fee for a post-mortem examination is is. yd. 



From the selection offered by these pens the curing companies 

 purchase their stock. Pigs are purchased by weight in the 

 following way. The total live weight of the number of pigs 

 required is taken and 49J lb. per head is subtracted from the 

 total weight ; this obtained, 4 per cent, is again struck off, the 

 remainder being the weight paid for according to quality at so 

 much per kilo. 



The animals thus purchased are driven up a long covered 

 gallery to the second floor of the abattoir, where they are killed 

 and slung up by the hind leg to an overhead rail to pass down 

 an inclined plane, through the hot water tanks and usual pro- 

 cesses, to the first floor, where they are cleaned before going on 

 to the cooling and storage rooms. The carcases are then handed 

 over to the purchasing company to be salted and prepared. 

 This is done by means of perforated needles, through which the 

 brine is forced by a hand pump ; the carcases are then placed in 

 heaps, either on the floor of the salting room or in specially pre- 

 pared tanks, where they lie covered with dry salt for some eight 

 days, when they are packed and loaded on the railway trucks 

 drawn up on sidings at the door of the warehouses. 



The following table shows the number of pigs killed and the 

 weight, in cwt, of the pork and bacon exported during 1901 : — 



1901. 



Destination. 



Number. 



Weight. 



Vienna 



England ... ... ... ... 



France... 



I3-756 

 16,120 

 13,404 



Cwt. 



,23,490 



22,320 



Total 



43,280 



65,560 



