212 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



floor, and being conducted by spouts to large tanks outside the building. "While 

 this is being done another lot is let into an adjoining pen and served in the 

 game manner. The first lot, by this time, having bled sufficiently, is slid down 

 an inclined plane directly into the scalding tub or vat, made of wood, some six 

 feet wide, twenty feet long, and three feet deep, the water in which is heated 

 by steam-pipes, and kept at a regular temperature ; here they are floated along 

 and turned by men at the sides until they reach the further end, where they 

 are taken out of the tub by a simple contrivance, operated by a single man, and 

 deposited upon the end of a long inclined table. Two men stand ready and 

 take from the back in an instant all the bristles that are suitable for the brush- 

 maker and cobbler, depositing them in boxes or barrels for removal. Other 

 pairs of men, standing on opposite sides of the table, divest another part of the 

 hog of its coat and so on through some eight or ten pairs of men, who each 

 have a different part to perform in cleaning the hog, until it reaches the last 

 pair, w^ho put in the gambrel stick and swing it on a hook on an overhead rail- 

 way, there it receives a shower bath of clean cold water, washing it clean from 

 any particles of dirt that may remain, giving it, at the same time, a parting 

 Ecrape with knives. It then passes along to a man who opens it and removes 

 the large intestines. It then passes to the second man, who takes out the small 

 intestines, heart, lights, &c.; the hog then receives a thorough drench of clean 

 water, and passes to another man who splits the backbone down. They are 

 then taken from the hooks and borne away by overhead road-ways, and hung 

 up to cool, one man being enough to handle the largest hogs with ease. At 

 this point a man loosens up the leaf lard ready to be removed "syhen cooled, 

 which, together Avith the splitting of the backbone before mentioned, helps very 

 much to thoroughly cool the meat. The hogs are allowed to hang in this 

 cooling-room, before being cut up, two days, when all animal heat is gone. 



After the small intestines, &:c., are removed from the hog, they are taken by 

 men and boys, and all the fut separated from them and placed in large vats of 

 water to wash it clean, going through two waters, when it is ready to go into 

 the lard tank, which will be described hereafter. 



THE CUTTI.\G-UP PROCESS. 



Having now got the hog ready for cutting up, he is taken from the cooling- 

 room and carried to the room for this purpose, each hog being weighed as ho is 

 brought up, and his weight entered in a book kept for the purpose. Having 

 been rolled on to the block, one blow from an immense cleaver severs the head 

 from the body ; another blow severs the saddle, that is, the hind parts, contain- 

 ing the hams ; another lays it open at the back ; another one for each leg ; the 

 leaf lard having already been loosened is now taken hold of with the hands, and 

 instantly stripped out of the carcass. The remainder of the hog is then cut up 

 according to the kind of meat it is most suitable for, the whole cutting-up pro- 

 cess occupying but a few seconds of time, two smart men having cut over two 

 thousand in less than eight hours. The usual day's work, ho^vever, at this 

 establishment is from 1,100 to 1,200 head. 



THE LARD HOUSE. 



The size of this building we have given above. In the second story are 

 arranged seven iron tanks, made of heavy boiler iron, twelve feet high, and six 

 feet in diameter, capable of sustaining a high pressure. These extend up 

 through the floor above into the third story, where each one is provided Avith a 

 large man-hole into which the leaf lard, head, gut lard, and pork trimmings are 

 emptied, until the tank is full, when it is closed and the whole mass subjected 

 to a jet of steam from the boilers, of a pressure of fifteen pounds per inch ; each 

 tank is supplied with a safety valve, so that on reaching the maximum pressure 



