THE FARMERS' CABINET, 



DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE AND RURAL ECONOMY. 



Vol. II.— No. 8. 



Pliiladelpliia, November 15, 1837. 



[Whole No. 33. 



Raising aaid Ciia-ins Pork. 



Auburn, Frederick Co. Md., Oct. 29, 1837. 



In vol. 2d, No. 6, of the Cabinet, a Chester 

 county writer asks some person who is ex- 

 perienced in the preservation of pork, to com- 

 municate through the Cabinet, the best me- 

 thod of preserving that indispensable article 

 in sweetness of flavor, during the hot months 

 in summer. What little information I pos- 

 sess in curing bacon, as practised by me for 

 a number of years, and which, on a fair trial, 

 I am induced to believe will be found fully 

 equal if not superior to the Burlington or 

 even the celebrated Westphalia, I give with 

 much pleasure. 



In order, then, to have good bacon, it is 

 necessary to have good hogs. By good hogs I 

 mean those of an approved breed, of proper age 

 and size ; much more depends on the breed of 

 the hog than is generally supposed, and much, 

 very much upon the age and size. The 

 most approved breeds for bacon, are the cross 

 of the Parkinson with the Siberian, or the 

 Chinese with our common stock ; the meat is 

 more delicate in flavor and taste, and easier 

 to be raised and kept fat. Hogs from fifteen 

 to eighteen or twenty months old, are the 

 best ages ; and weight from one hundred and 

 thirty to one hundred and eighty pounds. 

 Hogs of less age than twelve or fifteen 

 months, have too little firmness and solidity 

 to retain their juices, and after smoking be- 

 come hard and dry ; the same objection holds 

 good as to weights under one hundred or one 

 hundred and twenty. Hogs of two hundred 

 pounds or upwards are too thick and large to 

 be thoroughly salted and smoked; conse- 

 quently difficult to preserve any length of 

 'time. The next thing to be considered is, 

 the mode of fattening. 1 prefer a pen large 



Cab.— Vol. IL— No. 8. 113 



enough to enable them to exercise and pre- 

 vent crowding ; in' a close pen they will fatten 

 quicker. I commence feeding with corn, 

 either shelled and set in troughs, or thrown 

 to them in the ears ; for the first four or five 

 days they should be fed sparingly to prevent 

 surfeit, a;nd never at any time should mor6 

 be given them than they eat up clean. If 

 given in large quantities, it will either pro- 

 duce surfeit and prevent them from eating 

 for a day or two, or they will waste it by 

 chewing and throwing it out again.- From 

 six to eight weeks, according to the plight of 

 the hogs when penned, (to say nothing about 

 putting up in the increase of the moon and 

 killing in the full,) will make them fat 

 enough. My hogs are fed three times a day, 

 morning, noon and night, and entirely on 

 goed sound corn, except occasionally throw- 

 ing them raw potatoes of cabbages, which 

 serves to cool the system heated by the corn. 

 Charcoal or rotten wood, containing a large 

 quantify of pyroligneous acid, is constantly 

 kept in the pen — they are regularly salted 

 twice or thrice a week. I hold it as an estab- 

 lished fact, that no food for hogs, except good 

 sound Indian corn, can ever makte bacon of 

 the first quality. Slops will make fat hogs, 

 but never can make prime bacon. Your hogs 

 being now fattened, the next thing to be done 

 is to kill or slaughter them. I have a small 

 and very substantial pen made convenient to 

 the slaughter house, so as to bring them into 

 as small a compass as possible, for the greater 

 facility of catching ; as soon as one is caught 

 he is brought out of the pen and laid upon his 

 back on some loose planks a little elevated 

 from the ground to admit the blood to escape ; 

 he is then stuck and held fast until dead ; not 

 permitted to struggle or wallow in his blood 

 or become bruised, as a bruise at that time 



