PORK, the flesh of swine, is one of the most important and widely used species of ani mal food. Fresh pork, though by some con sidered a delicacy, especially when killed young, is a much inferior article of diet to beef or mutton, and is much less used. The flesh of pork, particularly the lean, is coarser and ranker than that of the other animals chiefly used for food, but there are certain advantages which give pork a place in the supply of animal food that can be filled by no other article. The appetite of swine being much more catholic than that of their daintier neighbors, the feed ing of them answers the purposes of economy, and extends very materially the supply of food. This, it is true, is attended with considerable dangers. If care is not taken that the feeding of swine should be wholesome and cleanly, their flesh becomes tainted with disease and unfit for food. Unscrupulous breeders sometimes take advantage of their exorbitant and omnivorous appetite to make them consume the most dis gusting offal, and even when their feeding is not conducted with this utter recklessness of consequences it is often less careful than is consistent with sound sanitary conditions. There is in fact no animal to the perfection of whose flesh as an article of diet careful at tention to feeding is more indispensable. The
main recommendation of pork lies in its su periority to other kinds of animal food in undergoing the process of curing. The quality of beef and mutton is seriously deteriorated when long kept, even under the best methods of curing; that of pork is decidedly improved, and when of good quality and well cured it develops a richness and delicacy of flavor in marked contrast with the dryness and insipid ity of other salted meat. Another recommenda tion of pork is the abundance and very digesti ble quality of its fat, which makes it a very suitable diet for cold climates, but which is, on the contrary, rather a disadvantage in hot•ones. For long sea voyages, especially before the in troduction of modern methods of keeping fresh meat, pork was by far the most common and acceptable form of animal diet, and it is still one of the most valuable items in naval stores. The swine was among the unclean animals for bidden to be eaten by the Mosaic Law. It is still regarded by the Jews as specially typical of the unclean animals. The Egyptians, Arabians and other Eastern nations had similar opinions as to the use of pork. See Hoes; NUTRITION OF FARM ANIMALS; PACKING INDUSTRY; SWINE.