HOGS AXD PORK PACKING. 211 



The price for dressed Logs divides ou those weigliiug 200 pounds, the lowest 

 price being for light ones, the others for heavy. The price of live ho^'s is 

 governed both by quality and supply and demand. 



The prices that have been paid for pork have, of course, varied Avith the 

 years, like all other articles of commerce. The earliest purchases made for 

 packing in 1832 to 1834 varied from $2 to §3 per hundred net. To show the 

 weight of hogs in early days, contracts were sometimes made between pack- 

 ers and drovers for a lot of hogs, for which a given price was to be paid, the 

 hogs to average 150 pounds ; for all that they averaged over that 1 cent per 

 pound was to be added, and all that they fell short 1 cent per pound was to 

 be deducted. This was an incentive to produce heavy hogs, the contracts 

 being made early in the season. 



A MODEL PACKING-HOUSE. 



"We give but one description, which will answer for a model one. Others 

 vary according to the business to be done, but the general features are the 

 same ; the classification of the meats are the same in all. In the one described, 

 Wt one grade of lard is made, in some there arc two or three grades ; the 

 pai'ts of the hog producing lard being sorted out, making prime leaf lard, No. 

 1, &c., &c. 



The superior advantages presented by Chicago as a packing point have cen- 

 tered large amounts of capital here in the business, and the packing-houses 

 now are among the wonders of this thriving city, from their completeness of 

 arrangement and the wonderful facility with Avhich the business is conducted. 

 We cannot give a better idea of it than to describe one of the largest and most 

 complete establishments, which has been erected during the year 1863 by 

 Messrs. Jones & Culbertson, and at this writing is in full operation. 



The main building occupies a ground-room of ISO by 156 feet, with a lard- 

 house 35 by 156 feet joining, being separated by a heavy brick wall and iron 

 doors to prevent the steam and vapor from entering the main house. The 

 building is three stories high, with nearly a flat roof, which is very heavy and 

 double, perfectly tight, and divided oft" into yards or pens for receiving the 

 hogs, capable of holding four thousand head at once. The whole building is 

 constructed in the most thorough and substantial manner imaginable. The 

 lower floor is used for curing the meat and storing the material, the second 

 floor for packing and shipping, the third for cooling and cutting up the hogs. 



The advantages of having all animals for packing in a natural and healthy 

 state when killed seem not to be generally understood, or at least but few 

 packers give the necessary attention to the condition of the animals when 

 killed to insure the best keeping condition to the meat. If an animal is killed 

 immediately after hard exercise and excitement, as in drfving to the slaughter 

 pens, the flesh is in a high state of fever, the marrow is in a semi-fluid condi- 

 tion, and produces what is known as foul joints, and becomes in a short time 

 tainted and eventually spoiled. By the arrangement in the house under de- 

 scription the hogs are driven up an incline to the top of the building, where 

 they have perfectly fresh air and good ventilation. They are allowed to re- 

 main there two nights and a day before being killed, and they are then in the 

 best possible sanitary condition they can be. 



METHOD OF KILLING. 



When all is ready the hogs are driven, some twenty at once, into a small pen 

 with a fine grated floor. A man then enters, and, with a long handled hammer, 

 deals each hog a heavy blow on the forehead between the eye«i, which instantly 

 drops him on the floor. After he has lain a few moments, another man enters 

 the pen with a sharp knife and sticks each hog, the blood flowing through the 



