THE EMIGRANT'S HAND-BO 3*. 



ench side. During the process of curing, the sides are 

 repacked several times, depending upon the weather- 

 sometimes every other day. In about ten days, the meat 

 is sufficiently cured for market. The salt is brushed off 

 clean with a twig broom ; the side again carefully trim- 

 med, scraped, and smoothed down, by beating it with a 

 flat board, and then passed to the baling or packing- room. 

 Five sides are put together, and a thin layer of salt be- 

 tween each, and then sewed up in a coarse kind of bag- 

 ging manufactured for the purpose. In this condition, it 

 is shipped for the London market ; and, with a little care, 

 will keep in good order for months. Hams and shoulders 

 are cured in the same manner, except some use saltpetre 

 with the salt when first rubbed in. Many prefer their 

 bacon and hams dried rather than smoked ; but, when 

 smoked, great care is taken to keep the meat of as white 

 a color as possible. To do this well, the meat should be 

 quite dry when hung up in the smoke. Competition is 

 very keen among the Irish and Continental provision 

 curers, and great skill is used to make the best article. 

 Hence, the utmost pains are taken in curing and putting 

 up their bacon, hams, and dried beef; and many of the 

 most intelligent men in the country are among the pro- 

 vision merchants of Ireland and Hamburgh. Tierce 

 middles are the middle or broadside of the hog, between 

 the ham and shoulder. It is cured in the same manner 

 as the whole side, but, in preparing for the English mar- 

 ket, I should recommend to put it up clear of all bone, 

 and should therefore take out not only the chine, but all 

 the ribs. It is put up in tierces holding about three hun- 

 dred pounds, and treated the same as salted pork. 



A profitable trade might be carried on between west- 

 ern New-York and the New-England States, during the 

 fall and winter, in baled lacon, if freight could be carried 

 over the Utica and Schenectady railroad, at reasonable 



