96 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
This may have been true in liis time. But a 
modern well-bred pig is one of the cleanest, if 
not one of the gentlest and most intelligent of 
our domestic animals. Let his hoggish name 
cease with his hoggish nature. 
I am glad to see that a “ Swine Breeder’s As¬ 
sociation” has been formed in Illinois. It is 
certainly needed. Our Agricultural Societies 
pay comparatively little attention to swine. 
They often appoint judges that do not know a 
Berkshire from an Essex, and are just as likely 
to give a prize to a grade as to a thorough-bred. 
Cutting up the Fore Quarter of Beef. 
There are a great number of beeves killed for 
the use of those who live in the country, and this 
is usually done either by country butchers, or 
by the farmers themselves. The object in cut¬ 
ting up seems to be to get the meat into pieces 
that can be conveniently salted, boiled, or cut 
up for frying. Now there are pieces peculiarly 
adapted to roasting or baking, others fitted for 
corning, others out of which stakes may be cut; 
and whether the meat is to be sold in pieces to 
suit customers, or cut up for family use, it is 
important that there should be (so to speak) an 
equitable apportionment of bone to meat, so 
that we shall not have pieces of bone with little 
Fig. l.—FORE QUARTER OP BEEF. 
or no meat, and pieces of meat -without their 
share of bone, which, indeed, is often taken out. 
After the beef is slaughtered and dressed, the 
carcass is cut in two, an ax or cleaver being 
chiefly used; and it is so cut that the spines of 
the backbone are left alternately on either side. 
The sides are handled and transported, whole, 
or cut in halves, according to the weight and 
size of the animal. When divided, the cut is 
made just back of the last rib, as in figure 1. 
Fie 
The fore quarter should be cut about as fol¬ 
lows : First, a cut is made from the outside, 
crossing all the ribs nearly in the middle, and 
severing the whole quarter 
in two, apparently, nearly 
equal parts, as seen in figure 
1. This cut may be made 
to cross the 7th or 8tli rib, 
and then the quarter may 
be cut across the other way; 
or, after making the first cut 
through, each part may be 
divided at the 7th or 8th rib. 
The rib roasting pieces are 
cut from the piece contain¬ 
ing the backbone, following 
the ribs. The choicest piece 
contains the second and 
third, or second, third, and 
fourth ribs, counting from 
the rear. The dotted lines in the engraving 
indicate that the first three ribs are cut for one 
large roasting piece (A), the next three for 
another (I>), and the seventh and eighth for the 
next (6'). The broad, flat piece (D), which con¬ 
tains the ends of the ribs is called the plate piece, 
and with the one cut from it containing the car¬ 
tilaginous and bony connections between the 
ribs and the breast-bone, and called the navel 
piece, is used for corning. The plate piece of 
a very fiat steer is shown in 
fig. 3, and fig. 4 represents 
the navel piece from the 
same animal. Used fresh, 
these pieces are excellent 
for stewing, and pretty 
.good for boiling for soup. 
After removing the first, 
second, and third-cut rib 
roasting pieces from the up¬ 
per half of the quarter, the 
rest is cut at right angles to 
the backbone, into as many 
pieces as is desirable. Those 
cuts, containing ribs, are call¬ 
ed clmck-rib pieces (F, fig. 
1), in the vicininty of New 
York, and we believe New 
York nomenclature is be¬ 
coming quite generally ac¬ 
cepted. The neck cuts (£?, 
fig. 1), are called first, second, 
and third neck pieces. These 
are for soup, stewing, or 
corning, and are also used 
by the Bologna sausage 
makers in our large cities. 
Figure 2 shows the cut made 
in dividing the rib roasting 
pieces from the chuck-rib 
and neck pieces, seen togeth¬ 
er in figure 1. The leg (II, 
fig. 1), or that part of it 
which is anatomically the 
forearm, is called the shin, 
or shin of beef, fig. 5, and 
is cut off following the dot¬ 
ted line above, but avoiding 
the brisket, (I, fig. 1,) which 
lies beneath it. The shin is an excellent soup 
piece, one of the very best, especially for 
soup stock, and the brisket is generally corned. 
The piece marked K, in figure 1, is the cross¬ 
rib, an excellent common piece for almost any 
purpose. In front of the cross-rib lies the shoul¬ 
der clod and sticking piece, not separated. This 
is rather a large piece, and is cut up for corning, 
soup, or stewing pieces. The thick piece contain¬ 
ing the shoulder joint is a favorite soup piece. 
Cut in the way here indicated, every piece 
contains more or less bone, except the sticking 
piece. The proportion may easily be judged 
RIB, CHUCK-RIB AND NECK PIECES. 
of by the outline of the frame in figure 1. 
When chuck-rib roasting pieces are cut in the 
market, the shoulder-blade is usually cut out, 
and a slice of nice fat laid and skewered in. 
Fig. 3. —PLATE PIECE. 
With this description we think no one should 
have any difficulty in cutting up a fore quarter 
of beef very neatty. The tools needed are a 
Fig. 4. —NAVEL PIECE. 
good knife and steel, a butcher’s saw, or a good, 
fine-toothed cross-cut wood-saw, and a cleaver, 
or light ax. It should be borne in mind, that 
Fig. 5. —SHIN OP BEEF. 
following this general system, the pieces may 
be larger or smaller according to the size of 
the animal, and the use they are wanted for. 
Warm House Walls. 
It makes us almost shiver to ride by the flim¬ 
sy shells erected for dwelling houses nowadays, 
in many, if not all of the rapidly growing sub¬ 
urbs of New York, and the adjacent cities. 
The same faulty structure is to be found more 
or less all over the country. We are building 
our w r ooden dwellings with too light foundations, 
with too cheap walls, and with too thin floors. 
Thus, while j. house is a shelter from the storm, 
and a sort of wind-break, the cold penetrates, 
the rain drives in and v'cls the w-alls, and the 
plastering cracks, water freezes on cold nights, 
the consumption of coal is great, and discom¬ 
fort and colds in the head prevail. The walls 
referred to are simply weather-boarded and 
latli-and-plastered upon studs set 1G inches 
apart. There are several ways of making them 
very comfortable. 1st. — They may be filled in 
with brick laid fiat in a cheap poor mortar, and 
this when 4-inch studs are used, fills the entire 
