282 
PRACTICAL FACTS ABOUT PORK AND BACON. 
that is, the second pond the year following the first, 
and the third, again a year later, so that each will 
then come round in its turn, to be fished. By this 
arrangement there will always be a superabundant 
quantity of brood in store, to restock the stew- 
ponds, and sufficient left for sale. 
By overstocking the ponds, the fish become 
sickly, lean, and bony; and it is stated as a re¬ 
markable proof of the care required in this respect, 
that if the proper number of fish be stored, the 
weight in three years will prove equal to what it 
would have been, had twice the number been put in ; 
so that the smaller number actually produce the same 
weight as the larger from a given area of water. 
New York , August 15, 1846. D’Jay Browne. 
The Tomato.— Thomas Jefferson Randolph, the 
•protege of Jefferson, in an address before the Agri¬ 
cultural Society of Albemarle county, Virginia, de¬ 
livered some time since, stated that Mr. Jefferson 
could recollect when the tomato was cultivated as 
an ornament to the flower-garden, and deemed 
poisonous. e 
PRACTICAL FACTS ABOUT PORK AND 
BACON. 
What is the loss in weight on making pork into 
bacon ? This question is often asked, and every 
farmer, particularly in the West, ought to know 
how to answer it. As a general and safe rule, 
from facts within my own knowledge, I have 
always contended that it is better for the purchaser 
to buy pork in the hog, and make his own bacon, 
w r hen he can do it for one half the price per pound, 
than to buy it ready made. That is, if pork is 
usually worth 3 cts. and bacon “ hog round,” 6 cts., 
it is better to buy the fresh pork. I am writing for 
the West, and in Western language. That your 
Eastern readers may understand, I will say that 
“ hog round” means 2 hams, 2 shoulders, and 2 
sides—out of which latter the bones should always 
be taken. I always trim off belly pieces for lard. 
Hams and shoulders too are well trimmed. The 
method of salting often astonishes some of the new 
emigrants from Yankee land. Nobody ever made 
better bacon for 15 years than I have, and I never 
use a pork barrel. I sprinkle about 2 oz. saltpetre 
and 6 lbs. of N. Y. salt to a hundred of pork, piled 
up on a bench, or in the corner of the smoke¬ 
house, like a pile of bricks. I. let it lie about as 
many days as the hams weigh pounds each—over¬ 
hauling once. Then hang up far away from the 
fire, in a very open and airy smoke-house, and 
smoke well with hickory or other sweet wood. 
Then draw loose cotton bags over each joint, and 
tie round the string by which the meat hangs. Do 
this before the flies come in the spring, and you 
may let it hang as long as you like, and it will be 
good—at least, mine is so. For many years our 
house has not been without a supply of this most ex¬ 
cellent kind of meat, which is a much more healthy 
food than the eternal round of fresh beef, &c. 
But to return to my subject. On the 20th of 
January, 1846, I killed 5 hogs, about a year and a 
half old, and one about half that age, of the Berk¬ 
shire and China breed, fattened upon corn fed in 
the ear, the quantity not counted, as it was too 
©heap to regard that. 
The following table will show the weight of 
each hog, and the weight of each piece of meat cut 
for bacon. 
Hogs. 
Hams. 
Shoulders. 
1 Sides. iHeads. 
312 lbs. 
30 lbs. 
32 lbs. 
44 lbs. 
23 lbs 
30 •• 
30 
38 
308 •• 
29 •• 
34 •• 
40 • • 
21 .. 
30 .• 
35 
38 .. 
295 .. 
30 • • 
35 •• 
37 • • 
19 • 
32 •• 
35 .. 
34 • • 
289 .. 
29 •• 
29 .. 
34 •• 
21 .. 
27 • • 
30 •• 
38 •• 
259 •• 
27 • • 
23 .. 
26 
21 • 
27 •• 
24 •• 
26 • • 
181 
20 
19 *. 
19 •• 
20 •• 
22 •• 
19 • • 
12 •• 
1644 331 348 393 117 
Scraps, fyc. —21 lbs. of feet; 213 lbs. of sausage 
meat, and ribs and back bones and trimmings off; 
150 lbs. of leaf lard and fat trimmings; 71 lbs. loss 
in cutting, and difference in weighing; 331 lbs. 
weight of 12 hams; 348 ditto 12 shoulders; 393 
ditto 12 sides ; and 117 do. 6 heads :—1644 lbs. 
This pork when killed was worth 3 cts. a pound 
—I will say it would only shrink the 44 odd pounds 
in taking to market, at which it would amount to 
$48. The lard tried out 129 lbs., a most beautiful 
article, the scraps not being much squeezed, as that 
would rob the good wife’s soap tub. 
On the 28th of April, the bacon being well 
smoked and dried, was ready to bag up. I weighed 
it, and found that the 12 hams weighed 304 lbs. 
(loss 27); 12 shoulders, 331 lbs. (loss 17); 12 
sides, 259 lbs. (loss 34); I am inclined to think 
that an error of 10 lbs. was made in the weight of 
the shoulders, as I have heretofore found the per 
centage of loss about the same on these as on the 
hams. I will therefore throw off ten pounds on 
these, and we have 1,113 lbs. of bacon and lard in 
good weight and order, for market, which at 61 cts. 
a pound, which is a fair average price, will 
come to $69.56. The heads and sausage meat are 
worth one cent a pound, $3.30; 24 feet, 14 cts., 
wull make an even sum of $73; from which take 
the $48 price of hogs before cutting, and it leaves 
a very pretty little sum to pay for a dollar’s worth 
of salt and saltpetre, and the little trouble of 
handling. But it must be small-boned fat hogs, as 
these were, to do it. In this case I could sell the 
bacon and lard at 4£ cts., and be well paid for 
trouble and cost of making bacon, because the 
heads, &c., are worth much more than I stated them 
at in any family. 
The principal object in this statement is to inform 
those who have had less experience in this matter 
than I have, whether it is most advantageous to sell 
their hogs fresh, or cut and salt; and for that pur¬ 
pose I have endeavored to be accurate. Each per 
son in his own place will judge of his own market 
and relative prices, and if his hogs are not so 
good as mine, make greater allowance for loss and 
offal. 
Will some one who keeps a pork barrel', make a 
similar statement, and publish for the benefit of your 
readers ? Solon Robinson. 
Lake C. H. (now called Crown Point), ) 
Ind., May 15, 1846. j 
