No. 5. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 363 



The CHAIRMAN: We don't like to cut these, because the gentle- 

 men furnish this meat without any charge. 



SECRETARY CRITCHFIELD: It is not necessary to be cut; 

 just tell us which side of the round it is located on. 



The CHAIRMAN : We don't like to spoil the meat any more than 

 we have to. 



PROF. TOMHAVE: In removing- the rump from the round to 

 get your round steak, cut just below this pelvic bone and parallel 

 to it. Now this portion right here is the best portion of that round. 

 This heavy bundle of muscle fiber without very much cartilage and 

 connective tissue — this bundle is smaller, more cartilage and con- 

 nective tissue than you have on this side, but if you were buying 

 round steak and wanted the best cut out of that round, the nearer 

 you could buy it in the center of this round, the better the cut. In 

 other words, the first two or three cuts from the round are inferior 

 as compared with the fourth, fifth and sixth cut and from there on, 

 as you get down this round, you will find they become tougher on 

 account of this large amount of cartilage or connecting tissue that 

 binds this together. As you get down here, you will find that it be- 

 comes almost half cartilage and that it is very tough as compared 

 with the round. 



NoAv any questions you would like to ask about the beef, I will be 

 glad to answer. If yon have no questions, we are going to proceed 

 to cut the side of hog which Belcher & Company kindly furnished us. 

 There are a number of different ways of cutting a pork carcass. Most 

 of you may have your own ideas along this line, may have your own 

 method, and no doubt it is a good one. I am going to cut this car- 

 cass tonight by what is known as the commercial method of cutting 

 pork carcasses, as the packing house method. That is the most desir- 

 able, the nest economical method so far as the packers are con- 

 cerned, and it certainly should be the most economical and most de- 

 sirable method of cutting for the farmer, because the packer has 

 spent years in working out these problems. Every cent or two that 

 can be saved on a hog carcass runs into hundreds of dollars through- 

 out the year when you consider the large number that are being 

 killed. A great many farmers, after the hog has been slaughtered, 

 insist that the carcass must be cut that same day. Now T do not 

 belicre that <^here is a man here that can make a good, smooth, uni- 

 form cut in a warm carcass. I have never been able to do it and I 

 do not believe you can do it, because it is too loose and too flabby. 

 Now you are not so busy that it is necessary for you to get through 

 with that operation that same day. If butchering time comes and 

 your neighbor is helping, slaughter your hogs in the morning and 

 his in the afternoon and go after it the next day and cut the carcasses 

 after they are thoroughly cooled and the meat set. A carcass should 

 always be thoroughly cooled before it is cut up into retail cuts and 

 before it goes to the curing vessel, and we also want it firm and 

 well set. 



I requested them to give me a side of hog leaving the head on the 

 carcass, splitting it right through the center. How many in this 

 audience, in splitting your hog carcasses, split it right through the 

 middle of the backbone? Let's see your hands. Quite a number. 



