1861. 



THE ILLIE"OIS FAEMEE. 



11 



element ; no steam is admitted to the lard, 

 as in the old ?team process. So soon as it 

 is boiled enough, the steam is withdrawn, 

 and the lard drawn off into a cooler and 

 thence into barrels; the rapid cooling makes 

 it white, providing that it is not cooked so 

 much that the scraps color it, great care 

 is taken in this respect, for if the lard is 

 not as white as the driven snow, it will not 

 pass for No. 1. 



Here is another lesson for our good house- 

 keepers : cook lard just enough to throw 

 all the water from off the lard, not pressing 

 the scraps, cool rapidly, and you will have 

 the snowy article. The scraps can then be 

 pressed and this lard put by itself. We 

 should have mentioned -that the vat or kettle 

 is covered, but not so close that the steam 

 that arises from the lard escapes. The 

 heads are also rendered, and make a large 

 quantity of lard ; this is used in the manu- 

 factory of lard oil, for which it is more val- 

 uable than the best lard. In this lard 

 department, the greatest neatness prevails, 

 and no one purchasing lard from this house 

 need have any scruples about its purity. In 

 the slaughtering houses they make another 

 quality of lard known as the rough lard by 

 our farmers. How often that is palmed off 

 as the first quality we cannot say, but it is 

 generally sold to grocers and retailed by 

 them. Farmers in the northern counties 

 very generally slaughter their hogs before 

 shipping, while those of the central are 

 shipped alive. In the one section is a large 

 number of small farmers who send off five 

 to twenty hogs each ; these are generally 

 well fatted. The rough lard more than 

 pays the expense of killing, and on the 

 whole they return more net profit than when 

 sent in alive. They are sold by commission 

 merchants in the city, who return the pro- 

 ceeds generally by certificates of deposit on 

 Chicago banks, or as directed. Thus the 

 grower and packer are brought together at 

 a small comparative expense. On the other 

 hand, the large pork growers of the great 

 corn zone ship their hogs alive, and visit 



the city in person ; but as we said before, 

 pay a commission for selling the same, as 

 though they were not present, with this 

 difference, that they are in the market to 

 direct the holding over, in case of a flat 

 market, and to look after the feeding. The 

 small farmers in that part of the State, sell- 

 ing on foot to the dealers who ship. For 

 ourself, we should prefer the plan of our 

 northern farmers, and slaughter, as in this 

 case we pay but one commission, but in the 

 other we pay two, one of which is generally 

 a pretty round one. It is not so much our 

 province to advise as it is to give information, 

 leaving each one free to pursue his own 

 course. We often find one inconvenience 

 growing out of the practice of shipping on 

 foot — our village dealers are often under 

 the necessity of sending to the city for 

 mess pork, hams, bacon and lard. Now, if 

 farmers were in the habit of slaughtering 

 their own pork, these dealers would pack 

 suflicient for their customers, 



[From the Ohio Cultivator.] 



Wintering Sheep. 



Notwithstanding there has been so much said, 

 and so many have givpn their experience in re- 

 gard to sheltering stock, yet some seem to be in- 

 credulous about sheltering sheep. In the fall of 

 1858, I started into the winter with about 80 fine 

 sheep without any shelter. But 0! how I came 

 out! Against spring opened up, I had 66. But 

 that was not all. I had gone to the expense and 

 trouble of getting two very nice bucks; and from 

 about 50 ewes I raised about half as mnny lambs, 

 by raising four or five by hand. Was this all ? 

 No ! When I sheared them, I put what wool I 

 had got off my dead sheep in among my other 

 wool, and then my 66 fleeces did not average three 

 pounds. 



I thought a good many things ; i ut ihe most I 

 thought was that something must be done, and 

 then the next was how to do it. I have a double 

 log barn set up on blocks, and I finally concluded 

 I would make some stables under that. With a 

 very trifling expense and a few days' work, I got 

 them all comfortably fixed for last winter. I 

 wintered about 80 again ; and I lost but two old 

 ewe ',2that were old enough to die anyhow. From 

 47 ewes I raised 44 lambs without any trouble. 

 My fleeces averaged over 3J pounds. Instead of 

 coming into the bouse in the morning wtth my 

 countenance fallen and my mind perplexed with 

 vexation and disappointment, and telling my wife 

 that another of my sheep had died last night, or 

 that two cr three ewes had dropped lambs and 

 lost them, or would not own them, or something 

 of that kind, I would come in and with joyf 



