364 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
Is Curing Pork Profitable ? 
The majority of pork raisers sell their fattened 
swine, either on foot, or in the carcase after 
slaughtering. The following calculations made 
by Hiram Olmstead, in an Essay on “Practical 
Farming as connected with the Butter Dairy,” 
if correct, prove that it is more profitable to cure 
and pack pork before marketing. He estimates 
pork as worth $7 per hundred, in carcase, and 
$19 per barrel when packed; cured hams 124 
cents, shoulders 10 cents, and lard 124 cents per 
pound; and says: “Every ten pounds of pork 
packed, will weigh out eleven after it is salted. 
Hams and shoulders will fall short about one- 
eighth, after they are smoked. Cut up the hog 
in the following manner. Split the hog through 
the back bone, take out the lard, cut off the 
head, cut out the hams and shoulders, and cut 
the side meat into strips, the way the ribs run, 
through the back bone. One hundred and eighty 
five pounds of side meat will make a barrel of 
mess pork, and will weigh out after it is salted 
over 200 pounds. Dissolve saltpeter and bathe 
the hams and shoulders; rub on all the fine 
salt that will stick to them, and keep them cov¬ 
ered with salt two weeks. If large, they will 
need to lay three weeks. Wash off the salt 
and smoke. The coarse meat will be the legs, 
head, and the rib, on the inside of the shoulder. 
At the above prices and estimates, four hogs, 
weighing fifteen hundred, would stand thus: 
5 barrels pork, 185 lbs. each, 925 lbs., at $19.00 per bbl, $95.00 
100 pounds lard, less 5 Jbs., 95 lbs., at 12^ per lb, 11.87 
200 do. ham, less % lb., 175 lbs., at 12M per lb, 21.88 
144 do. Bhoulders, less K 120 lbs., at 10 per lb, 12.60 
131 do. coarse meat, at 2H. 2-27 
Total.$144.62 
Less five packing barrels at $1.12 .. 
Less four bushels salt and saltpeter. 
.$5.62 
, 3.50—$9.12 
Value of 1,500 lbs. pork, packed.$135.50 
Value of 1,500 lbs. sold, at $7. 105,00 
Profit for packing.. .$30.50 
The value of the pork at these prices is nine 
cents per pound, after it is packed.” 
We are not certain about these figures. What 
say practical men among the readers of the 
American Agriculturist. The question is open for 
discussion by those experienced in the business. 
Is Feeding Grain Better than Selling it? 
“ A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” 
is not always true—for instance, if the bird in 
the bush have a nest there. Acting upon the 
teaching of the above proverb, cultivators have 
to a very large extent sold their crops rather 
than fed them out on the farm. Grain threshed 
and sold, brings the ready cash, and it is fed 
grudgingly, if at all, to stock. There may be 
times when the prices of cattle, sheep, and hogs 
are proportionally lower than the price of grain, 
so that there is apparently a loss in converting 
rye, oats, and corn, into beef, pork and mutton, 
DUt it may be doubted whether there will not 
always be gain enough in the quality of the 
manure from grain fed animals, to overbalance 
this apparent loss. Carefully conducted exper¬ 
iments have proved conclusively that the quali¬ 
ty of manure depends very greatly upon the 
richness of the food consumed. An illustration 
of this fact was communicated to the New-Eng- 
land Farmer, by Hon. F. H. Holbrook, to which 
we will call the attention of the readers of the 
American Agriculturist. He says: 
“ How true is the remark of Mr. Coke, late 
Earl of Leicester, that the value of farm-yard 
manure is in proportion to what it is made of. 
If cattle eat straw alone, the dung is straw alone; 
the cattle are straw, the farm is straw, and the 
farmer is straw—they are all straw together. 
Not long ago I had four cows come up to the 
stable in the Fall, which I thought might yield 
a good supply of milk through the Winter, if 
well fed. I also had four other animals, cows 
and heifers, which were not expected to give 
much milk until the following grass season. The 
first four were tied in the stable, side by side, and 
received each, in addition to hay and stalks, four 
quarts of small potatoes each morning, and two 
quarts of corn and oatmeal each evening, through 
the Winter. As we expected, they gave a good 
mess of milk, and came out well in the Spring. 
The manure of those four cows was thrown out 
of a stable window under the cattle-shed, by itself. 
The other four animals were tied in the same 
stable, next to the first four, and received only 
hay and corn fodder. Their manure was thrown 
out by itself at the next stable window, and un¬ 
der the same shed, so that the two heaps lay side 
by side. The heap that was made by the four 
cows that were daily messed with potatoes and 
meal, kept hot and smoking all Winter, and was 
wholly free from frost. The heap made by the 
other animals that had only hay and stalks, 
showed no signs of fermentation, and was some¬ 
what frozen. Observing this difference from 
time to time, curiosity prompted me in the 
Spring to apply those two heaps of manure sep¬ 
arately, but in equal quantities, side by side, on 
a piece of corn ground. The superiority of the 
corn crop where the manure from the messed 
cattle was applied, over that where the other 
heap was spread, was quite apparent and strik¬ 
ing, and called my attention more particularly 
than it was ever before directed, to the import¬ 
ance of feeding out our best or richest products, 
if we would have the best kind of manure for our 
lands, and large crops from them.” 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Guess Work in Farming—Account Books 
—Platform Scales. 
Mr. Editor: —There is too much “guess 
work ” on the farm. Not one farmer in ten can 
tell exactly how many acres of corn he raised 
last Summer, nor precisely how many bushels 
there were, nor what the crops cost him. He 
“ calculates” there were about twelve acres per¬ 
haps, and he “reckons ” he had somewhere in 
the neighborhood of three hundred and fifty 
bushels; some of it he fed out in the ear to the 
hogs, and some he took to mill; he “didn’t keep 
no account.” Many a man finds himself com¬ 
ing out behind his expenses at the end of the 
year, when interest day comes around, but he 
does not know where the trouble is. He has 
raised wheat and oats, and cattle and sheep, and 
thinks he sold them at good prices, but there’s 
a great leak somewhere. His ship is sinking, and 
he does not know which plank is rotten. 
When a merchant is selling a piece of cloth, 
he looks at the cost mark, before he will state 
the lowest price, and then he is careful to meas¬ 
ure the number of yards before making out the 
bill.. He also wants to be satisfied that the cash 
will be forthcoming in due time, before he de¬ 
livers the goods. But the farmer too often does 
no such thing. His first transactions are with 
his fields. He carts out a lot of manure, requir¬ 
ing considerable labor. He sows some seed, cul¬ 
tivates the crop with a good many days’ works, 
and receives a quantity of grain. He does not 
know its cost, and can not therefore tell wheth¬ 
er the field with which he has been dealing has 
made him a fair return, neither can he safely fix 
a price on the crop. If an ox is fattened, too 
often no account is kept of the feed, and more 
careless still, the animal is sold on the foot, his 
weight being estimated , and the price fixed ac¬ 
cordingly. The buyer has the advantage of long 
every day practice, and can much better judge 
of the probable weight, than the farmer can 
guess at it. 
The whole system is wrong. Every part of 
farm business should be based on fact3 and fig¬ 
ures, measure and weight. A set of account 
books in the house and a platform scale for 
weighing at the bam should be part of the farm¬ 
er’s fixtures. 
The latter article may be dispensed with on 
small farms, but any one who raises a dozen 
head of cattle per year, will find use enough for 
the scales to handsomely pay the interest on their 
cost. The amount of food given to each ani¬ 
mal can then be accurately known, the creature 
can be weighed every month or oftener, and 
the food regulated accordingly; and when the 
buyer comes, the farmer will know what to say, 
without a long spell of whittling, or a final 
guess at the right price. Jonathan. 
■-— » "- 
Balance the Accounts Now. 
An editor, who unfortunately does busiuess 
on the credit system, and is therefore compelled 
to keep a standing dunning notice, unpleasant 
to both himself and his readers, thus logically 
nudges his readers: “We don’t want money 
desperately bad, of course not, but our credi¬ 
tors do; and no doubt they owe you. Now, 
you pay us, we’ll pay them, and they’ll pay 
you. We shall all then feel better to begin the 
year, and no one will be the poorer. Let 
us begin square all round.” This is not bad 
advice for others than delinquent subscribers. 
Now is the time to do it. Close up the year 
by settling with everybody. Pay the butcher, 
shoemaker, blacksmith, doctor, minister, every 
body. Has there been an exchange of labor, of 
teams, seeds, implements, etc., among neighbors, 
and the accounts left unbalanced ? Before the 
New-Year comes in, let them be adjusted. 
If impossible to get the ring of creditors broken 
into, at least let there be a looking over of ac¬ 
counts, and the actual balance be ascertained. 
One can meet his neighbors with a better coun¬ 
tenance, if the actual indebtedness has been 
agreed upon, and acknowledged, than when 
there is an imaginary large debt somewhere 
concealed in the long “ running account.” 
“ Short settlements make long friends,” is a good 
old proverb. A man should know, at least 
once a year, precisely how he stands with the 
world. If he is doing well, the knowledge will 
comfort him; if not, it will rouse him to re¬ 
newed exertion, make him more prudent and 
cautious, and enable him to provide against 
emergencies. 
Fuel—A Hint for December. 
Now is the time to go into the wood-lot, and 
gather up every fallen limb, every pile of chips 
made in recent choppings, all heaps of unde¬ 
cayed bark, and whatever else is worth saving; 
pick these all up and cart them to the wood¬ 
shed. Do this work now, before the snow 
falls and covers up these things and hastens 
their decay. If not needed by yourself, invito 
some poorer neighbor to go and help himself 
This will make his hearth-stone glad in the dark 
days coming—and will it not make your own 
more cheery ? 
