CURING PORK IN WARM WEATHER, ETC. 
277 
for slaughter, what twenty men now do ; certain 
establishments confining themselves to particular 
descriptions of animals, for which their arrange- 
ments would be entirely adapted. The preparation 
of these for market, would necessarily be more 
advantageously done, than if a few mixed animals 
were huddled together, as of bullocks, calves, sheep, 
or swine. When thus prepared, another class of 
dealers, those who sell in market, would come in, 
and take the dressed carcasses for retailing. Each, 
it is evident, could thus make more money, if they 
buy and sell at present prices, than either could do 
separately ; but the result would probably be, that 
in consequence of the greater economy and dispatch 
thus secured, the article would be furnished at 
cheaper rates to the consumer. 
Another vast advantage would result in a proper 
disposition of all the blood and offal. What now 
is made the destruction of health and life, would, 
by proper arrangements, be made most effectively 
to sustain both. There are probably 80,000 bul- 
locks, 70,000 calves, 150,000 sheep and lambs, and 
50,000 swine annually butchered within the city, 
to say nothing of horses, dogs, cats, and smaller 
game. If all the refuse of these, not consumable 
as food or in the arts, could be composted with 
peat, charcoal, plaster of Paris, sawdust, tanbark, 
turf, and the like, the product would be rendered 
inodorous, and when properly decomposed, might 
be carried upon the land, where it would afford 
mines of wealth to the farmer, the market gardener, 
and the fruit or ornamental horticulturist. The 
beneficial result of this arrangement would be felt 
in the increased supply, the improved quality, and 
diminished prices of our fruits and vegetables. 
The blood and offal from the above number of 
animals would yield sufficient, if properly com- 
posted, to manure 10,000 acres of land," in the most 
ample manner, and its value could not be estimated 
at less than $200,000 annually. Here would be 
a vast yearly profit to some one, which is now 
worse than thrown away. The consumption in 
the city of grown bullocks alone, has been increas- 
ing at the rate of 5,000 per annum for the last 
three years, and other animals in the same ratio. 
How soon, at this rate, will it require a small city 
itself, to contain the butcheries and their kindred 
occupations? 
What a splendid arrangement could be effected 
with this whole subject, grown to the size it now 
is, if under the exclusive control of one intelligent 
mind. And American citizens can accomplish more 
than an autocrat, when they form a well-concerted 
and combined movement. What well-arranged 
streets and lanes; ample, shaded, and well-paved 
j-ards ; thorough drainage ; complete fixtures and 
rooms for slaughtering ! What ample, well-aired, 
convenient receptacles for the display and wholesale 
disposal of their fabrics! Here would be a fine 
field for the study of disinfectants by the man of 
medicine ; and an equally desirable one in the 
science of composting, for the agricultural chemist; 
the practical butcher would resort thither for the 
renewed study of his art, which he had found had 
all bgen learned wrong before ; and even the man 
of refinement and rural taste might receive a plea- 
sure from the combination of perennial lawns, 
tasteful shrubbery, and graceful woodlands, inter- 
spersed amid the charnel houses of the quadruped 
— something akin to that imparted by straying 
among the mouldering relics of humanity. They 
would lack the sentiment and association which 
attaches to a Greenwood or Mount Auburn ; but 
they would at least assure us, that the most 
revolting occupation necessary to fallen man, 
would, so far as practicable, be" shorn of its most 
odious features and accompaniments. 
SOUTHERN PLANTING — COW PEA — COTTON 
SEED, ETC. 
The above caption I transcribe from the heading 
of an article in your May number, written by Col. 
Hampton. This paper is worth a great deal to me. 
It supports me, in the views I first started, in your 
columns, in 1843-4, and afterwards in the Southern 
Cultivator, for which I have received by the cor- 
respondents of the latter, full many a belaboring. I 
presume, now, -with Col. H. as a leader, that I may 
assure all planters of the cow-pea family, that they 
would do well to take advice and be cautious. I 
have planted a great many varieties of this pea, 
and to get the " red-ripper" — the same as the " red- 
winter" pea, of Col. H., I begged Governor Ham- 
mond to send me a barrel, which he of course did. 
I have now as many kinds of peas for experiment- 
ing as has any one, kindly sent me by J. V. Jones, 
of Georgia, and Robert Chisholm, of Beaufort, S. C. 
I sow peas for their shade and manure to my 
land, and have no idea of using them hereafter, 
except for store hogs. I expect to fatten 75 or 80 
hogs this winter, and will have pindars and pota- 
toes enough to do so. I made, last year, 8,000 lbs. 
of pork, and hope to put up 15,000 lbs. this win- 
ter. The past season, I hauled out, with ten hands, 
100 four-horse loads of manure, and cotton seed, 
say ten loads to the hand, and had I not undertaken 
to do too much fencing, &c, I would have doubled 
my manure. Fifty head of hogs gave ten large 
loads of manure, by using close pens 9 by 30 feet, 
and littering heavily with corn stalks. I am trying 
what manure and close planting with corn will do. 
I do not expect to succeed fully, as I do not intend 
the spot for corn until after breaking up. 
M. W. Philips. 
Edwards' Depot, Miss., May, 1849. 
♦ 
CURING PORK IN WARM WEATHER. 
In the March number, at p. 92, of the current 
volume of the Agriculturist, Mr. Robinson cites a 
Mr. Smith's reasons why pork is not made south 
to a greater extent, from the difficulty of not having 
"sufficiently cool weather, at killing time, to save 
the meat." 
With respect to the gentleman belonging to so 
extensive a family, I would state that I know a Mr. 
Smith, who always has the best of meat on his ta- 
ble — good sweet ham and pork, the latter from two 
to six inches thick — and he never cares for the 
weather, nor wishes his meat to get cold before it 
is cured, but kills, and packs it down, not only the 
same day, but the same hour it is butchered, if the 
time permits. He thinks, if not allowed to freeze, 
the salt will penetrate it so freely that it will cure 
quicker and much better than it otherwise would 
do. D. 
Morristown, N. /., July 11th, 1849. 
