142 
PORK—BACON—HAM.—NO. 2 . 
400 bushels per acre—say about 12,000 bush¬ 
els from his 30 acres. These he sold at 10 to 11 
cents per pound. Thus the crop produced him 
about $60,000! Who would not like to farm 
it at this rate ? But such high prices can be 
calculated on no longer; and so many are 
going to plant this spring, I have no doubt that 
potatoes, and everything else in the vegetable 
way, will be as cheap with us, the coming sum¬ 
mer, as in New York. 
Grain, flour, beef, pork, butter, and lard are 
very low here now, and selling at a great loss 
to the shippers. 
Sheep have recently been introduced here in 
large numbers, and of course will soon be 
plenty. Of horses and cattle, we found thou¬ 
sands among the Spaniards, when we first came 
here; they have never been high priced. Wild 
oats abound, and with grass, make abundant 
food for stock. In fact, they need never be fod¬ 
dered in this climate. The grass is green and 
grows abundantly all winter. T. A. S. 
PORK—BACON—HAM.—No. 2. 
Seeing that the bony structure, gelatinous 
substances, and muscles are the parts of the 
animal which earliest arrive at their full devel¬ 
opment, it follows that, other things being equal? 
those breeds which arrive at their full growth 
in the shortest period will be the kinds natur¬ 
ally adapted to secrete a superabundance of fat 
amounting to disease, (but which is the farmer’s 
profit,) in the shortest period from the time of 
birth, and consequently least expenditure of 
food, presuming animals of different breeds but 
of like age, eat like quantities. Carrying this 
comparison a step further, namely, that if two 
animals so treated and killed at the same age, 
(say at nine or ten months,) were to be found 
when dressed, to weigh alike; but the one ani¬ 
mal, say an improved Essex, and the other an 
Old English pig, their marketable value would 
be very different, fully 20 per cent. The first 
would present a fine, thick coating of firm flit, 
embedded in the cellular tissue, the ham would 
present the epicurean quality of marbled flesh, 
with a due amount of external fat, and the omen¬ 
tum, (caul,) would yield a line leaf of white 
lard ; the roasting pieces, if cut out for that pur¬ 
pose, such as the muscles running from the 
neck down to the loin, and including the joints 
commonly called the spare rib and loin, will be 
found tender, juicy, and fat. Another great ad¬ 
vantage of this breed is, that in proportion to 
its size, the weight of the fine joints and pieces, 
such as the ham, shoulder, and belly, where the 
desirable intermixture of lean and fat, so much 
coveted by epicures, is to be found, is much 
greater, relatively to the whole carcass, than 
will be found in the larger breed. 
On examining the carcass of the larger breed, 
the enveloping fat will be found of a light-grey 
color, soft and flabby; the muscles stringy, and 
when salted, will run up greatly, yielding at 
the same time a large quantity of brine; so 
much so, that when dry, the whole weight will 
be found to have diminished in a much greater 
proportion than the same weight of pork from 
the smaller breed. To say nothing of the great¬ 
er weight of bone in the latter than in the form¬ 
er kind, in cooking, the meat from the first will 
be found scarcely to diminish in size, whilst the 
second will be seen to shrivel up considerably. 
This will be especially seen in the belly parts. 
The cause of this difference is, that in the ma¬ 
tured animal, the cellular tissue, ligaments, &c., 
have fully developed themselves—have become 
firm and compact; whilst in the growing ani¬ 
mal, these portions of the body remain in a soft¬ 
er and more gelatinous state, in consequence of 
the presence of moisture. It will be seen that 
this form of tissue is almost indispensable to the 
growing animal, in order to adapt it to its con¬ 
stantly-increasing expansion of frame. When 
arrived at its full growth, this softness gives 
place to firmness and compactness of texture. A 
less amount of water is now found in the tissues, 
and the flaccidity of youth is succeeded by the 
elacticity of adolescence—the compactness and 
strength of maturity being followed by the rig¬ 
idity of age. 
The effects arising from cooking and salting 
meat in the forms presupposed are in unison 
with the above facts.. In meats, salted or cooked, 
derived from the immature animal, the gelatine 
is dissolved out of the tissue, and the animal 
fibre contracts, which, combined with the cir¬ 
cumstances of the tissues bearing so much larg¬ 
er a ratio to the fatty and muscular parts, cause 
the meat to contract and shrivel up, whilst the 
disproportion of sinewy substance to the whole 
mass makes the meat hard and tough ; at matu¬ 
rity, the tissues are capable, in boiling, of ab¬ 
sorbing moisture and becoming softened. This 
kind of meat has consequently the tenderness 
so desirable. Although of two animals treated 
as described, the profit decidedly preponderates 
in favor of the smaller breed, it by no means 
follows if the experiment be carried further; 
that is, until the larger breed has arrived at ma¬ 
turity, that the profit would not be with the 
larger animal; as after the smaller breed has 
