AGRICULTURAL MECHANICS AND RURAL ECONOMY. 



43 



these two operations. When the feed is placed in the trough, the swinging front is brought 

 into place and made fast by a bar or button, (as shown by B,) thus allowing the hogs free 

 access to the troughs C C. These troughs are made of cast iron — oval-formed basins — and 

 firmly secured in a frame G. D D D are iron guards, one for each trough ; these prevent the 

 hogs from interfering with one another while feeding. They are fixed on the swinging-frame 

 inside the pen, and being secured with screw-bolts, they can be raised or lowered to suit the 

 size of the hogs. They are placed so as to allow each hog to pass his head in, but not his 

 feet, and feed freely. The latter is a bad habit with hogs in common pens, by which they 

 waste and foul their food. 



Fig. 2. 



By this method of constructing hogpens, the troughs can be easily cleaned out, and thus 

 kept in proper condition. The health and growth of hogs are both greatly promoted by keep- 

 ing their troughs clean, for it is certainly injurious to them if fresh food is mixed with any 

 surplus that has been left from a previous meal and suffered to ferment and become offensive. 

 This method of constructing hogpens also saves food by preventing waste, as the hog by this 

 arrangement cannot get his feet into or root out his food from the trough. The proprietor 

 states that he guarantees a saving of thirty-seven per cent, in fattening hogs by the use of this 

 pen. Another useful point is, that the front of the pen swinging on the bar F F may be used 

 as a door for ingress or egress, thus doing away with the custom of tearing a pen to pieces 

 whenever the occupants have to be removed. The person also in feeding does not come in 

 contact with the filth that naturally accumulates in the pen, and the trough can be filled or 

 emptied without getting into or reaching over the side of the pen. 



Hog-Killing in Cincinnati. 



The following account of the process of killing and dressing hogs in one of the largest esta- 

 blishments of Cincinnati is taken from an Ohio paper: — 



The building and its appurtenances are calculated for despatching two thousand hogs per 

 day. The process is as follows: "The hogs, being confined in pens adjacent, are driven, about 

 twenty at a time, up an inclined bridge or passage, opening, by a doorway at top, into a square 

 room, just large enough to hold them; and as soon as the outside door is closed, a man enters 

 from an inside door, and, with a hammer, of about two pounds weight and three feet length 

 of handle, by a single blow, aimed between the eyes, knocks each hog down, so that scarce a 

 squeal or grunt is uttered. In the mean time, a second apartment adjoining this is being 

 filled; so the process continues. Next, a couple of men seize the stunned ones by the legs, 

 and drag them through the inside doorway on to the bleeding platform, where each receives 

 a thrust of a keen blade in the throat, and a torrent of blood runs through the lattice floor. 

 After bleeding for a minute or two, they are slid off this platform directly into the scalding- 

 vat, which is about twenty feet long, six wide, and three deep, kept full of water heated by 

 steam, and so arranged that the temperature is easily regulated. The hogs being slid into 

 one end of this vat, are pushed slowly along by men standing on each side with short poles, 

 turning them over, so as to secure uniform scalding, and moving them onward, so that each 

 one will reach the opposite end of the vat in about two minutes from the time it entered. 

 About ten hogs are usually passing through the scalding process at one time. At the exit 



