360 Types and Market Classes of Live Stock 



By-products from early hog packing. — The Report of the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture for 1866 contains an account of early hog- 

 packing operations which is of interest for comparison with modern 

 methods of utilizing all of the by-products of the hog. The following, 

 written by Charles Cist, of Cincinnati, appeared in the report for 

 that year: 



"I have referred to the remarkable fact, that there was a period 

 in the West when corn would not, in some sections, command six cents 

 per bushel, and in others was of so little value as to be substituted for 

 wood as fuel. Not less extraordinary is the fact, within the knowledge 

 of hundreds now in Cincinnati, that in the early ages of pork packing, 

 say in 1828, there was so little demand for any portion of the hog, other 

 than hams, shoulders, sides, and lard, that the heads, spare ribs, neck 

 pieces, backbone, etc., were regularly thrown into the Ohio river to get 

 rid of them !" The same writer also says : "The slaughterers formerly 

 received the gut fat for the whole of the labor of dressing, wagoning the 

 hogs more than a mile to the pork houses free of expense to the owners. 

 Every year, however, adds to the value of fat, heart, liver, etc., for 

 food and the hoofs, hair, and other parts for manufacturing purposes. 

 Six years since, from 10 to 25 cents per hog was paid as a bonus for the 

 privilege of killing. This was later raised to 75 cents and even to 

 $1.00." 



In 1863, hog-packing products consisted of bristles, lard, mess 

 pork, hams, shoulders, bacon, and lard oil used for making candles. 

 The beginning of the immense packing-house by-products industry of 

 modern times was described by an early writer as follows:^ "Since 

 the Chicago river has ceased to be the sewer for all the offal from the 

 slaughter and packing houses, the owners have been obliged to cart it 

 off to the commons and open fields beyond the city limits at a very- 

 heavy expense to them. An enterprising firm has, however, contracted 

 with all the principal firms the present season to carry it all away by 

 the owners paying half the expenses. Instead, however, of carrying 

 it off and throwing it away, they have commenced preparing it for 

 fertilizers. They have provided centrifugal machines, into which they 

 place the refuse from the lard and grease tanks, and throw out all the 

 water, leaving only the solid parts, and that in a pulpy or pulverized 

 condition. In this way they will prepare about 3,000 tons the present 

 season, all of which will be shipped east for the manufacture of com- 

 mercial manures. Another concern is gathering all the bones it can 

 pick up, from which are manufactured large quantities of animal char- 

 coal, and such as are not suitable for that purpose are ground up and 



iH. D. Emery: Hogs and Pork Packing in the West, U. S. Dept. Agr. An. 

 Rpt.,1863,p. 215. 



