HORTICULTURAL REPOSITORY. 



265) 



you will see most plainly, that it was never the inten- 

 tion of nature they should plough or work in any 

 other way. The more they exercise, the more they 

 must expend of that oil in which all their riches con- 

 sists, and which at rest, they would treasure up. It 

 is therefore a great mistake and want of economy, to 

 confine hogs in the stye and leave them a single hour 

 unsatisfied with food. If their troughs are properly 

 made and fixed, they will not waste whatever you 

 may give, although they may not devour the whole 

 immediately ; nor will they cloy or sicken like the ox 

 hy having too large a mess. In a short time their 

 appetites return, and the remainder is devoured with 

 the same avidity as the first. It is this innate and in- 

 satiable desire for food, that renders the hog so ex- 

 tremely useful to man. 



That kind of hogs therefore, which have the great- 

 est appetites, joined with the earliest disposition to 

 fatten, are the best. There is a small kind lately im- 

 ported from China, and now fed by Mr. Storm in N. 

 York and Mr. Dun in Albany, which more than any 

 other that I have seen, have these requisite qualities 

 in perfection. 



The small grass breed so common about this town, 

 are also a valuable, race, and deserve more particu- 

 lar attention, than has hitherto been given to them. 

 They have a peculiar relish for clover, and will fatten 

 considerably upon it. I bought a pig of this kind 

 about a year ago ; it had been confined in a pen, and 

 there half starved, and although four months old, 

 weighed no more than forty pounds. Last winter it 

 was kept in the stye and fed with the refuse of the 

 kitchen. In the spring, a ring was put into his nose, 

 and he was turned out to feed in the orchard, where 

 the clover was fresh and abundant — when the apples 

 began to fall, he feasted upon them. About the mid- 

 dle of September, I began to feed him on old corn ; 

 this was boiled and fed to him freely, yet did not pre- 

 vent his eating clover and apples. About the 15th 

 of October he was shut from the orchard, but per- 

 mitted to run at large in an adjoining pasture, until a 

 few days, when he was killed, and declared by an 

 experienced butcher to be the fattest hog he ever saw. 

 The hairs upon his belly, swept the ground as he 

 walked. He measured more than six feet round the 

 breast, and the meat only weighed 418 lbs. 



This at $6 per hundred, is $25 



The lard not included with the carcase, 3 



$2S 



I do not know the exact quantity of corn he con- 

 sumed in the last two months, but as he had always 

 a «ood appetite, should estimate at least ten bushels ; 

 this might be worth 5 dollars — all my other charges 

 against him, could not be more than 5 dollars, inclu- 

 ding the purchase money. I have then you see, a 



neat saving of IS dollars ; a bountiful return for all 

 my care and expence ! 



Had the same treatment been given to a hog of 

 the long-leged, long-nosed breed, the result I am 

 quite certain, would have beeH very different. But, 

 gentlemen, when you have selected the best breed, 

 when you have fatted them in the best manner, and 

 when you have killed and brought them into the cel- 

 lar, you have not done all that is necessary to make 

 their flesh palatable, and to give it that fine and ex- 

 quisite relish, of which it is so peculiarly suscepti- 

 ble. As it is usually laid down in many families, it 

 is worth but little ; and before that time of the year 

 arrives, when it should be the principal meat upon 

 every farmer's table, it becomes rusty and ill-flavour- 

 ed, if not absolutely spoiled and lost. Pork is per- 

 haps the only flesh that improves by salting, and 

 grows better by the means taken to preserve it. 



Before the carcase h;is become entirely cold, it 

 should be smoothly and skilfully cut up. The chine 

 and ribs should be nicely seperated from the sides, 

 and the sides from the shoulders and hams. The 

 sides intended for summer use, must be packed alone 

 in a cask — cover the bottom of this an inch deep, 

 with coarse salt, then put in a laying of the sides firm- 

 ly pressed down ; next fill all the crevices, and level 

 the surface with more salt ; in this way alternately, put 

 down all your sides with the salt, and finish the work 

 by throwing upon the top a peck of salt and as much 

 cold water as will cover the whole. Laid up in this 

 manner, your summer meat will be safe and good, 

 until wanted for use ; but the shoulders and hams 

 must be treated very differently, or they will be too 

 salt, dry and unsavoury — put these into another cask, 

 pack them as close as possible, without any salt, and 

 then cover them with a pickle made in this manner . 

 To every gallon of hot water, put one pound and a 

 half of salt and half an ounce of salt petre — if the 

 weather is cool, this may be put upon the meat as 

 soon as the salt is ciissolved ; take care that you have 

 enough to cover every part of it. Here your hams 

 may lie five or six weeks, then take them to the smoke 

 house, having a care that they are not made too watfli 

 while smoking, for this would injure them much. — 

 To prevent any danger from this, let the smoke be 

 made with corn-cobs : when they are smoked to your 

 liking, take them out, and those intended for sum- 

 mer use, should be neatly and closely sewed up in a 

 coarse cotton or linen cloth, in such a manner that 

 no fly can have access to any part of them — then dip 

 the hams so covered, into a very strong lye of wood 

 ashes, and immediately return them to the smoke 

 house, or hang them in any other dry and cool place- 

 Here they will be safe from the depredations of in- 

 sects, and when wanted upon the table, will be found, 

 a luxury. 



