Abstract
This report clarifies the development of cattle fattening and its prerequisite in the prewar days in Shiga Prefecture, particularly its technical and economical aspects. During the period concerned, we should notice that the cattle had usually passed more than 5 years as farming cattle before fattening. The present analysis can be summarized as follows: (1) Regarding the fattening technique, cattle breeders classified their cattle into three categories, according to their form before fattening, thick or thin. Feed and fattening period varied with the category. That is, the condition in which cattle were kept greatly affected their worth as beef cattle. (2) Regarding the ideal beef cattle, cattle breeders developed fattening technique with the aim of marbling. In the late Meiji era, fat lumps were regarded as tokens of well fattened cattle, but in the early Showa, fat lumps seemed to be regarded as flaws. All the fat was demanded to be mixed in red meat. (3) Regarding the balance of cattle fattening, cattle breeders could expect certain profit, although before the introduction of fattening, keeping cattle brought expenditure.
