OLD HOMESTEAD 



His hog-house was not an old hovel or pen, but a first-class, 

 clapboarded story-and-a-half building, with floors and rooms or 

 apartments in which the pigs and old hogs could live decently 

 and respectably, keep clean and enjoy themselves. They had 

 two large rooms with a connecting door, which was closed as 

 required, and a sleeping-room, which was always kept nice and 

 dry, with clean straw or other bedding. In the summer they 

 could walk out on a kind of piazza or veranda on the shady east 

 side of the building, made with a good, substantial plank floor 

 and a sort of lattice-work constructed of hardwood scantling. 

 Herethe}^ could sleep, grunt and take their comfort between meals, 

 with no thought of where the next meal was to come from and 

 no care as to the fate which hung over them. There was a great 

 difference in the hogs as to habits of cleanliness. Some were 

 very neat and particular, others more careless. The sows were 

 generally much the cleanest and neatest in their habits. As 

 with human beings, it seemed to run in the breed or families. 

 The downright dirty pig was not long tolerated. His habits 

 were offensive and his example pernicious. 



The packing and care of meat, both pork and beef, was very 

 important, for if it was carelessly or ignorantly done the meat 

 would spoil in the barrels, and hams which were improperly 

 cured and smoked were of very little account, and sometimes an 

 entire loss. Our smoke-house was the old, big fire-place in the 

 cooper-shop, the front part of which was closed up, and sticks 

 put across about four feet from the ground, upon which to hang 

 the hams. The smudge or fire from cobs or green maple chips 

 was kept up under them until they were properly smoked. Be- 

 fore smoking they were first cured in a pickle of brine and salt- 

 peter and well rubbed with sugar. If allowed to remain in the 

 pickle too long, they were salt and hard; if not long enough, 



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