SHRINKAGE OF SOFT PORK. 5 
1 and 2 of the Appendix. It has been claimed by a few men that 
hogs whose carcasses would chill out oily or firm could be distin- 
guished when alive, but other tests, as well as those reported in 
this bulletin, show that it can not be done. At some of the markets, 
especially in the South, hogs with split, cropped, or deeply notched 
ears and showing traces of "razorback" characteristics often sell at 
a discount because the buyers are afraid the carcasses of such hogs 
will be oily. Such suspicion has sometimes caused those who had 
fattened their hogs on corn to receive an unwarranted discount. 
Discrimination of this nature has been one of the causes of general 
dissatisfaction because the extra expense of making the flesh firm 
by feeding corn was not justified from the feeder's viewpoint. 
In some lots in these tests every hog chilled out as selected, but 
in others hogs bought as oily chilled firm or soft. It was to be 
expected, therefore, that some of the lots would contain more than 
one grade of carcass and for that reason conclusions can not be drawn 
regarding the shrinkage of such lots in the chill room. The results 
of the live-weight and chill-room test records are found in Tables 1 
and 2 of the Appendix. 
The test lots were carefully marked and kept separate from the 
time they were weighed over the stockyards scales until the end of 
the retaining period. The latter was 19 days at Fort Worth and 
21 days at East St. Louis after the meat was taken out of smoke. 
The following weights were taken on each lot: 
Live weight. 
Warm dressed weight. 
Chilled dressed weight. 
Wholesale cuts 
After being cut and trimmed. 
After pumping. 
Out of cure. 
Out of smoke 6 hours. 
Out of smoke 24 hours. 
Out of smoke 6 days. 
Out of smoke 11 days. 
Out of smoke 19 and 21 days. 
From these records the gain or loss in weight from each process, 
together with the total loss, was determined. 
METHODS OF HANDLING THE MEAT. 
After the carcasses had remained in the cooler temperature for 
36 to 44 hours they were examined and classified by the cooler 
experts of the packing companies as oily, soft, or firm, according to 
the degree of firmness. The classifications thus made were checked 
by the representative of the Bureau of Markets. 
In cases where the live hogs sslected as being firm or oily did not 
chill out as expected when bought, other carcasses of hogs of the 
same size and killed the same day which did represent the kind 
desired, were substituted for the undesirable ones. Each test there- 
fore consisted of 25 carcasses which were uniformly firm, oily, etc. 
