VI.] KEEPING PIGS. 08 



coal. Stubble or litter .might do ; but the trouble would 

 be great. Fir, or deal, smoke is not fit for the pur- 

 pose. I take it, that the absence of wood, as fuel, in 

 the dairy countries, and in the North, has led to the 

 making of pork and dried bacon. As to the time that 

 it requires to smoke a flitch, it must depend a good 

 deal upon whether there be a constant fire beneath, 

 and whether the fire be large or small. A month may 

 do, if the fire be pretty constant, and such as a farm- 

 house fire usually is. But over smoking, or, rather, 

 too long hanging in the air, makes the bacon rust. 

 Great attention should, therefore, be paid to this 

 matter. The flitch ought not be dried up to the hard- 

 ness of a board, and yet it ought to be perfectly dry. 

 Before you hang it up, lay it on the floor, scatter the 

 flesh-side pretty thickly over with bran, or with some 

 fine saw-dust other than that of deal or fir. Rub it 

 on the flesh, or pat it well down upon it. This keeps 

 the smoke from getting into the little openings, and 

 makes a sort of crust to be dried on ; and, in short, 

 keeps the' flesh cleaner than it would otherwise be. 



151. To keep the bacon sweet and good, and free 

 from nasty things that they call hoppers; that is to 

 say, a sort of skipping maggots, engendered by a fly 

 which has a great relish for bacon : to provide against 

 this mischief, and also to keep the bacon from be- 

 coming rusty, the Americans, whose country is so 

 hot in summer, have two methods. They smoke no 

 part of the hog except the hams, or gammons. They 

 cover these with coarse linen cloth such as the finest 

 hop-bags are made of, which they sew neatly on. 

 They then white-wash the cloth. all over with lime 

 white-wash, such as we put on walls, their lime be- 

 ing excellent stone-lime. They give the ham four or 

 five washings, the one succeeding as the former gets 

 dry; and in the sun, all these washings are put on in 

 a few hours. The flies cannot get through this ; and 

 thus the meat is preserved from them. The other 

 mode, and that is the mode for you, is, to siftjine 

 some clean and dry wood-ashes. Put some at the 

 bottom of a box, or chest, which ii long enough to 



