THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
April 1 
248 
FAMILY SUPPLIES OF MEAT. 
BKTTKR TO BMOKB THAN TO SELL. 
The Mysteries of the Smokehouse. 
I wish to build a smokehouse. Farmere in this 
country raise plenty of hogs, but hardly ever kill 
more than one at a time, and generally Balt it 
down in a barrel. When that is used up, they 
kill another. Sometimes they have no hog fit to 
kill, and in extremely hot weather, it is not safe, 
and at other times they are too busy, conse¬ 
quently they are out of meat a great portion of 
the time, and must buy of the merchants, who 
charge us eight cents a pound for smoked 
shoulder and lard, and YZ% cents for ham. This 
would matter little if we got fair prices for our 
live animals. For years past, prices paid by 
shippers have ranged from 83.40 to 83 50 per cwt., 
but now they have combined and pay 82,75. I 
want to take some of these 82 75 hogs and cure 
them for our own use, and have meat to sell. Can 
The R. N.-Y. help me do it ? I want to know how 
to manage this business. Would I be right to 
build a house of rock 12 x 12 feet and nine feet in 
the clear, and sides 4*4 feet in the ground, 
leaving 4*4 feet above ground ? I would want a 
fire-proof ceiling, and would like to cure seed 
corn, also. w. h. c. 
Iowa. 
Better Cube the Meat. —It is poor 
economy to sell pigs at prices named, 
and buy the cured meat at an advance of 
300 to 400 per cent. Then, too, the qual¬ 
ity of meat does not depend so much on 
the curing as on the breeding and feeding 
of the animal. The farmer can have pigs 
In perfect health and as fat or lean as he 
likes. He may lack skill in dressing and 
curing, and fail to make as good products 
as he can buy. 
But he may, also, by care, produce 
better meats than any packinghouse can 
possibly produce. I know this, for I 
have furnished hams, bacon and sausage 
to fancy grocers who gave me two cents 
a pound more than they would pay for 
any packer’s brand on the market. It is 
easier to make fancy meats than gilt- 
edged butter. 
Some Simple Hints.— Let us assume 
that W. H, C. knows when a pig is ready 
to kill, and that he knows how to dress 
it and cut it up. If he does not, he must 
learn from a neighbor farmer or butcher, 
who will teach him by a real object les¬ 
son. The value of the cured meats will 
depend not only on the method of curing, 
and the quality of meat when killed, 
but also on the clean, neat appearance 
of the cuts. The very shape of a ham, 
shoulder or piece of bacon tells whether 
done by a bungler or a skilled workman. 
Even in the smoking of the meat, it is 
important that the fire is never hot 
enough to cause grease to drip from the 
meat. Aim at what is called a “ cool 
smoke,” and have all the pieces of the 
same color, not some black, others pale, 
and some black on one side and pale 
on the other. For family use, such 
meat may go as far, but will not sell 
readily, or bring as good prices, as well- 
smoked meats. Meat should be cured in 
a cool place, where the temperature is 
uniform. An airy, clean cellar is better 
than an outbuilding. The casks or bar¬ 
rels must be absolutely sweet and clean. 
Any mold in a barrel may start a fer¬ 
ment in meat or pickle. 
Careful of Taint. —One of the great¬ 
est sources of loss is in some piece start¬ 
ing to ferment in a cask, which quickly 
taints all. Hence see that every cut is 
clean and as free from blood and bruises 
as possible. This forbids rough hand¬ 
ling of hogs and carcass at killing time. 
A broken ham bone is almost sure to 
ferment in pickle, hence, in scalding, do 
not turn the carcass by a twist of the 
hind leg. It is a little thing, but may 
cause much loss later in the pickling tub. 
As the spareribs, backbones and ten¬ 
derloins are better used fresh, there is 
good reason for making two or three or 
more killings in the Winter. These, too, 
will keep longer hung up singly in an 
open shed, than if piled on a platter or 
in a tray in a cellar or close room. The 
albumen in one case dries, and in the 
other, ferments readily. 
The first killing should be made as 
soon as the weather is cold enough to 
cool out the carcasses. The last killing 
should be made so that the meat may be 
smoked before fifes appear. It takes five 
weeks to cure hams in pickle, so if flies 
appear in April, the last killing can be 
made in March early. This, too, is as 
late as we can count on safely keeping 
the spareribs, backbone, tenderloin, 
etc., until used up. 
The Smokehouse proposed will ac¬ 
commodate 150 pieces at one smoking. 
The plan is good as it will be, if well 
built, rat, mouse and fly-proof, and will 
be less affected by extremes of heat and 
cold. We have used a brick smokehouse 
12 x12, 10 feet high for a generation, but 
it is not banked, neither has it a fire¬ 
proof roof. There should be no danger 
of fire if the smoking is properly done. 
The fire should always be low and slow. 
We would have double doors well fitted, 
and the roof so tight as not to admit 
flies. In such a house, meat will keep 
for months as safely as canvased or 
packed away in barrels or boxes. The 
main point is to keep away from insects. 
During a wet spell, or when frost is 
coming out of the ground, it will be well 
to start a fire for a day to dry off the 
meat and house. Dryness is desirable to 
prevent ferment and mold. 
Cost of Meat. —In counting the cost 
of cured meats, W. H C. must remember 
that his hams and shoulders will shrink 
about 12 per cent between the time of 
removing from pickle and being ready 
for market. The longer smoked meat is 
kept, the greater the loss by evapora¬ 
tion. Still with meats properly cured, 
and held in such a smokehouse as he has 
in mind, there is no safer business than 
converting one’s porkers into good, sweet 
cured meats. He will find that he can 
readily build up a trade in pure pork 
sausage, if he can get the right blend, 
and the shoulders as well as trimmings 
of ham and white meat and tenderloin, 
etc , can go into sausage, and sell for 
more money than in any other form. 
His surplus lard can be handled and 
sold more readily in neat tin cans, than 
in any other package. 
Smoking Seed Corn. —As to curing 
seed corn in the smokehouse, this can 
be done before the meat is ready to 
smoke. We have gathered our seed corn 
in September, let it dry in the crib loft 
until the last of October, and then 
smoked it slowly a week, when it was 
cured, out of all danger of the early 
November freeze. 
The success and profits to come from 
W. H. C.’s plan depend mainly on him¬ 
self. There may be a prejudice in his 
town against country-cured meats, and 
this he may have to combat. If his 
products are up to expectations, there 
will be no trouble in finding some enter¬ 
prising grocer who will be glad to push 
them. There is a vast difference between 
trying to tell on paper how to kill, cure 
and market such products, and actually 
performing. The details are so numer¬ 
ous, that we can only submit general 
hints. It is not wise to begin killing 
and curing on a large scale. It is better 
to begin in a small way, and increase as 
the market-accumulated experience will 
justify. It is far easier to spoil a lot of 
meat than to make a prime article every 
time. But the field is large and well 
worth working. L. N bonham. 
Butler County, Ohio. 
SCRAPS. 
The recent blizzard seems to have taken the 
heart out of many laying flocks. Some of them 
are not over it yet 
A 8CB8CBIBER in New York State says that he 
is grinding hickory and butternuts, and mixing 
with grain for chicken food. That ought to make 
a good combination. 
It used to be possible to secure pullets and 
young hens in Delaware and Maryland at a rea¬ 
sonable price, and ship them to the North for 
early layers. This year, however, there seems to 
be » dearth of good stock on the Penitsula, and 
suitable young birds are hard to find. 
In Louisiana, low-grade molasses is largely fed 
to horses, hogs and mules. This molasses is a 
waste product, and was formerly run into the 
rivers and creeks to get rid of it. One gallon of 
molasses per day, fed to a horse or mule, keeps 
the animal in good condition, and saves a large 
part of the corn. 
To close a leak in the side of a cow’s teat, rub 
or cut off the skin around it, so that, in healing, 
the wound will be drawn together and seared 
over. 
Argentina is now exporting annually about 
2,500,000 frozen carcasses of sheep. The processes 
employed are the same as in New Zealand, which 
now has the most extensive meat-freezing works 
in Australasia. It costs New Zealand three cents 
a pound to kill, freeze, ship and sell the mutton 
in England. 
More than 300 milk dealers of Philadelphia 
have united to defeat the proposed milk trust of 
that city. They have formed a permanent or¬ 
ganization, called the Milk Dealers’ Protective 
Association, and will do all in their power to 
protect themselves and the consumers against 
what they regard as the evils of a great com¬ 
bination. 
The London wholesale milk dealers have sent 
out notices to farmers that they will send veter¬ 
inarians to the farms to condemn every cow 
with a bad teat. It is stated that, probably, 10 
per cent of the cows supplying the milk to the 
London market have bad or gummy teats, due to 
many causes, some of them having no bearing 
upon the quality of the milk. 
An English farmer was recently found guilty 
of poisoning his milk by using a preservative. 
He said he made it himself, using 12 pounds of 
sugar, six pounds of carbonate of soda, six 
pounds of borax and about 20 gallons of water. 
He put one pint of this stuff into each can, and 
the chemist found nearly 34 grains of borax in a 
gallon of milk, enough to kill a child fed exclu¬ 
sively on this milk. 
Mr. F. J. Bannon, Auburn, N. H., 
Foreman for Mr. Walter M. Parker, 
Pres. Manchester National Bank, reports 
that he tried Bowker’s Fertilizer on po¬ 
tatoes by the side of another fertilizer 
claimed to be as good or better ; and the 
Bowker yielded eight bushels more from 
one bushel of seed than the other, all 
conditions of soil, cultivation, etc., being 
alike. The usual quantity of seed pota¬ 
toes used per acre is 8 to 14 bushels, and 
at the above rate it will be seen the 
Bowker goods yielded at the rate of 64 
to 112 bushels potatoes more to the acre 
than the other fertilizer, and by so 
doing the increase alone more than paid 
for the fertilizer.— Adv. 
TJHLK IMPROVED 
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Hatches Chickeus by Steam. Absolutely 
■clf-rcgulatlng. The elmpleet. moat 
L reliable, and cheapest first-class Hatcher 
* In the market. Circulars FREE. 
CEO. EUTEL CO., QUINCY. ILL. 
Special OO Day Discount Sale 
on our Latest Improved Standard Incu¬ 
bators and Brooders Large valuable 
Catalogue and Discount Sheet for 6c. 
Flower City Inc. Co., Rochester. N. V. 
MATCH CHICKENS 
BY STEAM-with th. 
simple, perfeot, Mlf-regulatlng 
EXCELSIOR INCUBATOR 
Thousands In moowifnl aparatlan. 
Lewe.l prised let-elaee haWher Bade. 
6EO, H. STAHL, 
I14S» 1«» *. «tk Oml»«y, IlL 
I 
B 4IIBUY*! 
Snercssful Incubator and Brood¬ 
er catalogue, fully illustrated. Con¬ 
tains useful hints on poultry rais¬ 
ing and important information 
not in others. Mailed for 6 cents 
stamps. Worth a dollar. 
CO., Box 90, DesMoines, Iowa. 
POULTRY 
We keep everything in the POULTRY LINE, ♦ 
Fencing, Feed, Incubators, Live Stock, Brooders ^ 
—anything—it’s our business. Call or let us < 
send yon our illustrated catalogue—it’s free for < 
the asking—It’s worth having. > 
Excelsior Wire and Poultry Supply Co., • 
+ 28 Vesey Street, New York City. + 
BHABAZON’S POULTRY-CATALOGUE 
C prr f It’s a beauty; over 60 colored plates. Iilo» 
T n LE i trates and 'describes fine Turkeys, Qeatr, 
, Ducks and chickens; gives prices of fowls A eggs. Ylawt 
>lhiy©r , » Guide published. Inclose 10c. for poeUge. sta, 
J. R. Brabazoo, Jr. A Co., Box 57. Delavaa, 
% 4 ! 
m 
GREIDER’S FINE CATALOGUE 
of prixe winning poultry lor 1899. The finest poultry book out. A 
perfect guide to poultry raisers. Calendar for *99 on cover. Gives 
id stork f 
on cover. 
prloe of eggs and stock from the very iy;«t strains. It shows the 
‘nest chickens and describes them all. Fifty different varieties. 
nps. 
FA. 
Everybody wants this poultry book. Bend Six cents In stamps. 
B. H. GKEIDER. FLORIN. P. 
Blanchard’s White Leghorns. 
The leading strain of heavy layers. Eggs for hatch¬ 
ing from finest breeders and greatest layers out of 
1.200 hens. 15, $1.50; 30, $2.25; 60, $4; 100, $6. Send for 
cir. H. J. BLANCHARD,Groton, Tompkins Co., N. Y. 
WHITE WYANDOTTES and standard- 
bred. Hens prolific layers. None better. Low prices 
Write foreggclr. Ralph Woodward, New Rochelle, N.Y 
200 
C. F. 
young Barred P. Rocks; also Eggs. Clrcula 
free if you mention this paper. 
GIFFKN, Lock Box 85. St. Clairsville, Ohio. 
DCIf I hi nilPlf CfiRQ from very large pure- 
ILMIl LMJUlX LUUO bred stock. Guaranteed 
fertile. ’0 eggs. 75c.; 50 eggs, $2.25; 100 eggs, $4.25; 
200 eggs, $8. Order now. 
JOS. HARRIS CO., Coldwater. N. Y. 
f f \ f \ gk for Hatching from Thoroughbred 
White Plymouth Rocks. Our hens 
are good layers, and won prizes at the New York 
Shows of 1807-8. $1.50 for setting of 16 eggs; express 
prepaid. KESSLER & POOLE, 118 East Third 
Street, Mount Vernon, N. Y. 
Fertile Eggs, from good stock, ex¬ 
pressed safely any distance. Brown Leghorn, SOc. 
for 15. Buff Wyandotte, $1.25. 
F. M. W1XSON, 1024 College Avenue, Elmira, N. Y. 
HOMESTEAD POULTRY YARDS 
WM.S. CRAFT, Prop., King St., Port Chester, N. Y. 
Has for sale a few Cockerels of following named 
breeds; Andalusians, L. Brahmas, Houdans, B. P. 
Rocks, W. Wyandottes, R. I. Reds and S. C. W. Leg¬ 
horns. Prices from $1 to $2 each. Good stock and in 
perfect health Eggs for hatching in season. 
A J? PREMIUMS on 85 entries, Barred and White P. 
00 Rocks,Wyandottes. Brown Leghorns, R. I. Reds, 
Javas and Minorcas. Some Boston Winners. Eggs, 
$1.5U. Circular GEO. A. CHAPIN, Hampden, Mass. 
Eggs—$1 50 and $2 per sitting, from 
Brown Leghorn stock that took Second Prize New 
York Show, 1899. Also, White Wyandottes. Both 
farm raised. SHETLAND FARM, Montgomery, N.Y. 
Barred Ply'mouth Rocks, White Hol¬ 
land Tdhkkys. Thoroughbreds. Eggs only. List 
free. FRED GRUNDY, Morrisonville, Ill. 
F or Sale—200 W. & B. Bocks,W. Wyan. & B. Leg. Eggs. 
50c.per 13. Stamp. Mrs. J. P. Hellings, Dover, Del. 
M O TIIDIf CYC Fisher Island strain. Toms, 
. Di I UnNCI 0 $4: pair, $7. Eggs, $3 for 13. 
MBS. F. H. THOM80N. Fairview Farm, Holland 
Patent, N Y. 
Fantails and Homers. —Mated pairs 
for breeding. Also, white pairs. Nothing but the 
best stock at reasonable prices. 1 will answer. 
W. H. JOHNSON, Stapleton, Staten Island, N. Y. 
I0USY SITTING HENS 
will leave their nest* at every op¬ 
portunity, grow thinner anil thinner— 
often die before hatching time. 
Lambert’s Death to Lice 
will clean a hen, sitting or standing, the 
minute you put it on. It will not injure 
'■—8 or little chickens. Trial size JOc 
paid. 64-page POULTRY 
K FREE. 
D. J. LAMBERT, 
Box $07 Apponuug, K. I. 
post 
BOO 
MAKE HENS PAY I 
If you want to know how other* do this, vend 
for our Catalogs and Poultry Guido, it tell* 
all about thepoultry business and about the 
machines and the faults of none. Sent freight 
aid to every buyer. Catalogne 10c. Circulars free. 
e Cyphers Incb.lCo. Box >01 Wayland, N.Y. 
WE TRUST THE PUBLIC 
and aend them our Inoubator on 
I trial. No man should bur an Incubator 
and pay for It before giving it a trlaL^Tov 
► pay not a cent for our* until you have 
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that nobody can fail with it. A child 
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beat all others at World’a Fair,N a*h- 
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treatise on Incubation published, sent for 5 ota. rhans-fo: 
Brooders, Poultry House*, etc., sent upon receipt of 25 eta. 
Von Colin Incubator Co. 60 Adams St. Delaware City, Dei. 
HATCH 
AND BROOD 
I your chicks with mach¬ 
ines that leave no doubt 
__ I of success. A simple, 
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ILLINOIS. 
Made in several convenient sizes, from SOeggup. 
Impervious to sudden changes In temperature. 
Packed with asbestos and covered with iron. Can’t shrink or warp, 
or bum from lamp explosion or Buper-heatlng. Don’t buy an incu¬ 
bator or brooder until you get our Free Catalogue. 
J. H. JONES, Box 107, STREATOR, ILL. 
INCUBATOR QUALITY. 
When it comes to quality In an in¬ 
cubator, which embraces construc¬ 
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nothing that will equal 
The Prairie State. 
Two hundred first premiums in all 
klndB of competlons with all kind! 
of machines. Send tor catalogne. 
PRAiRiB STATE INCUBATOR CO., HOMER CITY,<?PA. 
’S 
don’t have to be 
faith as to results. A 
you simply paint It where the 
fowls roost at night and next 
day you can see the dead lice ly¬ 
ing on the painted boards.lt gets 
them all, body lice, mites and 
other bugs and Insects, and 
shows you where the profits go. 
Seeing Is believing. Get rid 0 f 
mites and lice on the old fowls and 
about the poultry house now and 
you will have no trouble raising 
chicks in spring and summer. 
Cheaper than any other method, 
(only 75c for a gallon can), no hand¬ 
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page catalogue telling all about 
“Insects” and diseases of poultry, free. 
Special sample offer to points where 
we have no agent. More agents wanted. 
QE0. H. LEE CO. Omaha Neb., or 68 Murray St. New York 
Suits Everybody. 
We guarantee the Star 
Incubator to be perfectly 
satisfactory to every pur¬ 
chaser or return your 
money without question. 
No other incubator com¬ 
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cubators to stay sold—we don’t, unless the 
buyer is satisfied that they are the best on 
earth and satisfactory in every way. 
NO MOISTURE to be supplied. Catalogue fret. 
STAR INCUBATOR & BROODER COMPANY, 
Bound Brook, New Jersey. 
