TWELFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X 473 



It really seems more natural. Don't feed too close to sleeping quarters; 

 the hog will be clean if you give him a chance. I like fresh-pumped water 

 for hogs an the time. I think most of the above plans are best for the 

 best methods of preparing and fattening hogs for market. 



PREPARATION OF CHOICE HAMS. 

 Farmers' Bulletin 479, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



CUEING. 



Home curing of hams is probably not as general as it was in former 

 yea's. Still it would seem that no farmer who raises hogs should be 

 without the knowledge required to prepare hams of good quality at least 

 for home use. The process is comparatively simple and requires no 

 special skill. As pointed out by E. W. Magruder, of the Virginia State 

 department of agriculture, the essential conditions which must be realized 

 are healthy hogs and sound meat. 



To secure the healthy hogs, give them plenty of range with as great a 

 variety of food as possible, and plenty of good, clean water. Smithfield 

 hogs are allowed to run at large most of the year. If you have woods to 

 supplement your pasture, so much the better. The hogs then obtain a 

 variety of food, as nuts, berries, roots, and grass. In hunting over the 

 large range they take sufficient exercise to keep them healthy and develop 

 and enlarge the muscular tissues, that is, the lean meat, but as the work 

 is not hard, the muscles g^ow without becoming tough and stringy. Allow 

 them a good range up to the time of killing, and do not fatten them in 

 pens. They fatten as well when left out in the fields and keep healthy. 

 As they fatten they travel less, but this travel converts much of the food 

 into muscle or lean meat instead of altogether into fat, as is the tendency 

 when penned, as illustrated by the western meat. To have the best meat 

 and that w^hich brings the best price and which has the best flavor, and 

 with the fat and lean properly intermixed and proportioned, you must let 

 the hogs have plenty of exercise and then kill them before they are too 

 fat. Have them fat, but not so fat they can hardly walk. There is no 

 economy in having them too fat, and the meat is not so good. 



To secure sound meat "be careful to kill only in cold, frosty weather. 

 After November 1 is safest. Allow to hang up all night to drain and 

 thoroughly cool. The hog cuts out nicer and keeps better if stiff when 

 cut out." 



There are various excellent ways of curing the hams. The following, 

 used for many years with success on the farm of Col. Chas. Schuler, com- 

 missioner of agriculture of Louisiana, is described in a bulletin of the 

 Louisiana station: 



When hogs are fat, select any time during the month of December, Jan- 

 uary, or first half of February, when weather is clear, wind from the 

 north to northwest, with the thermometer registering below 35° F. at sun- 

 rise. Have your water hot and scald as socn as hog is dead. Hang up 

 and disembowel the animal just as soon as it is cleaned. No butchering 



