CHAPTER XV. 



BUTCHERING AND CURING MEATS. 



A use for every product and every product to its best use. 

 Tim's Martha. 



Agriculture is subject to the same 

 economic conditions that have so pro- 

 foundly affected other industrial pursuits, 

 and on farm as well as in factory there is 

 a marked tendency toward a further and 

 further division of labor. Applying the principle to 

 pork production, for instance, it practically costs but 

 little more to kill, dress and prepare for market a 

 thousand hogs than a hundred hogs, and hence great 

 butchering and packing establishments have grown up 

 in all the principal cities and railroad towns of the coun- 

 try, and the business is becoming centralized. In some 

 parts of the United States home butchering will alto- 

 gether cease, I suppose, but the farm will ever retain 

 a great deal of individuality, and in all districts remote 

 from abattoirs the work will be done by individuals, as 

 heretofore, for years to come. 



A merciful act at slaughtering time is to stun the 

 victim with a blow in the forehead before bleeding. It 

 facilitates sticking. To get the opportunity for such a 

 blow, the animal must be run into a pen or chute made 

 for the purpose. As soon as he drops or is thrown he 



