256 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



stacks of hay, as they cut better ; a slice cut from a ronnrl stack exposes it 

 to the danger of being blown over, and I never s;iw a stack or rick open 

 its whole length to feed from. 



" An excellent system for farm buildings is low, snng stables, and sheds 

 for horses and cattle; low, room}' granaries for thrashed grain, never tempt- 

 ing the wind or fire with more than one story, and stack neatly all hay and 

 grain at a safe distance. 



" I hope this subject may come up before the Club again." 



Mr. Wm. S. Carpenter contended, with the light that he had derived from 

 the cultivation of a hundred acre farm in a rocky region, that no good far- 

 mer ever builds stacks, and that it was in the highest degree economical 

 to store everything in barns. He also contended that hay could be stored 

 in a barn in a greener state than in a stack. In short, he is opposed to all 

 stackers and stacking. 



Mr. John G. Bergen thought that the gentleman who wrote that letter 

 knew better about the circumstances of that country than we do, and that 

 his system was best there. i_ 



Dr. Trimble said that some of the best Pennsylvania farmers stack much 

 of their hay and grain, and if it was as uneconomical as Mr. Carpenter 

 would have everybody believe, he did not think it would be persisted in. 

 Then look at the vast qnantitj' of salt-marsh hay put up in stacks. Would 

 it be economy to build barns to store that? 



Mr. Sohjn Robinson gave a description of western farming, and showed 

 how utterly impossible it would be for men who grow from 100 to 500 acres 

 of grain a j'ear to build barns for its storage. So obvious was the necessity 

 as well as economy of stacking, that he thought a man as hard to be con- 

 vinced of such an importiint fact, might have it hammered into him upon 

 an Illinois prairie. What I want, said Mr. R., is that this Club shall not 

 endorse the preposterous notion that stacking is a sign of slovenly farming 

 — that a man must not raise hay and grain unless he has a barn to put it 

 in. We should rather teach people that, although a barn is a convenience, 

 it is not a necessity; and that great prairie farms can be made profitable 

 •where all the hay and grain is put up as described in this letter. Even the 

 thrashed grain can be safely stored in i-ail pens, and it would be almost im- 

 possible to find storage for Indian corn in any other way than rail-pens 

 cribs, where it is most abundant. 



Dry Salting Pork. 



Mr. Pitt — For dry salting, hogs are cut up into flitches and hams. The 

 spare ribs and bald ribs, are usually taken o\it for immediate use, or, if 

 preferred, only the meaty portion, say about six inches on each side of the 

 backbone, curing the remaining portion of the ribs in the flitch. There is, 

 also, another method of cutting up, viz: into flitches, hams and chines, that 

 is instead of splitting the hog down the backbone, the flitches are cut off 

 about three inches on each side of the backbone (narrowing as the cuts 

 approach the tail), giving a piece the entire length of the hog, from the 



