Vol. LXVII No. 3071. 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 5, 1908. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR. 
BUTCHERING TIME. 
Killing and Cutting Up Hogs. 
lo a humane person there is something distaste¬ 
ful in the expression “butchering” as applied to 
killing hogs, for the reason, perhaps, that it involves 
taking the lives of dumb animals, and perhaps, also, 
on account of the noise made by the hogs when 
they are caught for butchering. Nevertheless, with 
the approach of Winter, it is a custom on most 
farms to kill a year’s supply of pork for the family 
and market the remainder if there is any left over. 
In killing hogs, as with everything else, the work 
may be made much easier by simply studying the 
best methods to pursue, and by providing suitable 
tools with which to work. It is generally neces¬ 
sary to do the work out of doors, so a pleasant day 
should be selected late in November. When there are 
a great many hogs to kill a regular slaughterhouse 
should be provided. Only healthy hogs which have 
been properly fattened should be selected for butch¬ 
ering, as it is impossible to secure good meat from 
poor, sickly stock. The inside of every hog killed 
should be carefully examined for tuberculosis, espe¬ 
cially hogs which have been fed on skim-milk or 
whey from a creamery, and the carcass discarded 
if the disease is found in an advanced stage. The 
most profitable time for killing hogs is when they 
are from nine to 12 months old, and the best pork 
is made from hogs of this age, provided they are 
well bred. Pork of good quality cannot be made 
from scrub pigs. 
A knife with an eight or 10-inch blade should 
be used for killing. The hog should be held on 
its hack or side, and the knife inserted in the throat 
about two inches in front of the fore legs, with 
the blade slanting back directly toward the back¬ 
bone or at an angle of about 45 degrees, and held 
crossways of the neck in such a way that both 
arteries which run just inside of the breast bone 
will be cut. The next opera¬ 
tion is scalding and scraping. 
The tools required for this 
work are candlestick scrapers, 
hog hook, knives, barrel of hot 
water and a bench or platform 
upon which to work. The bar¬ 
rel is set on a slant, so the top 
of it comes just to the top of 
the bench. In killing heavy 
hogs it is always advisable to 
fasten a block and fall about 
10 feet above the barrel with 
which to lift the hogs on to 
the bench, and to handle them 
in the scalding tub, as it saves 
a great deal of heavy lifting. 
The water for scalding should 
be heated to about 190 degrees 
I 1 '. If too hot it is liable to set 
the bristles, and if too cold a 
longer time will be required. A 
few handfuls of ashes or a 
tablespoon ful of concentrated 
lye will aid in removing the 
scurf, but it has no effect upon 
the hair. Do not try to scald a hog before life is 
extinct. In using a barrel for a scalding tub but one 
end of a hog can be scalded at a time. The hog 
should be kept moving in the water and aired occa¬ 
sionally. As. soon as the hair can be scraped off 
easily the hog should be scraped clean with the can¬ 
dlesticks and hung up by a gambrel-stick run through 
the gambrel cords of the hind legs. He should then 
be rinsed off with hot water and shaved with a knife, 
and then rinsed with cold water. A convenient wav 
of hanging a hog is to place a long pole with *one end 
on the ground and the other end against some build¬ 
ing. The gambrel stick can then be pushed up this 
pole, with the hog hanging to it, until it swings clear 
when it can he held it place by driving a large nail 
in the pole below the stick. The next step is to slit 
him down the belly and remove the intestines, stom¬ 
ach and liver. Cut the gall out of the liver, being 
careful not to spill any of its contents on the meat. 
Then cut around the diaphragm and remove the heart, 
lungs, gullet and tongue. Wash out thoroughly with 
READY FOR THE KNIFE, Fig. 431. 
cold water, insert a cob or stick in the mouth to hold 
it open for drainage. In cold weather it is not neces¬ 
sary to slit the hog down through the center of the 
backbone until the next day after killing, although 
this would hasten cooling on a warm night. When 
properly cooled, which is generally at the end of 24 or 
36 hours it is ready to cut up. The carcass is then 
slit down through the backbone with a cleaver and 
the head removed. Fig. 436 shows one side of a hog 
with all the tools required for the work, and the posi¬ 
tion of the cuts for the ham, shoulder, bacon and loin 
next step is to remove the leaf lard from the bacon 
strip by simply peeling it backward with the hand. 
Remove the sparerib from the shoulder and bacon by 
cutting close to the rib bones. Cut the fat part off 
from the loin. In a good hog this is two inches or 
more thick. Cut the legs off just' above the knee 
and hock joints. 
l’hc hams and shoulders should be neatly trimmed, 
using the trimmings for lard or sausage. Split the 
head into quarters by first cutting it through the cen¬ 
ter with the cleaver. This is generally boiled for 
head cheese. The feet, snout and' ears and tail are 
either pickled for souse or they may be boiled and 
eaten while fresh. The hams, shoulders and bacon 
strips may be cured and smoked, and if it is desired 
to use the loin fresh it may be cut into chops or 
roasts. If the loin is not wanted to use while fresh 
the spareribs may be taken out whole and all of the 
broad side, including bacon, can be cut in pieces six 
or eight inches square and salted down in a barrel. 
For this purpose a clean hard wood barrel should be 
used. I he safest way is to have one made to order 
so it will be in proper condition. A good way to 
make salt pork is to rub each piece of meat with fine 
table salt and pack closely in a barrel. The, next day 
weigh out 20 pounds of salt and four ounces of salt¬ 
peter for each 200 pounds of meat. This is dis¬ 
solved in eight gallons of water and poured over 
the meat when cold. A large flat stone is placed 
on the meat to keep it under the brine until wanted 
for use. 
For the hams, shoulders and bacon, the following 
standard recipe has given very good satisfaction. As 
soon as the meat is thoroughly cooled rub each piece 
with salt and allow it to drain over night. Then pack 
the hams and shoulders in the bottom of a barrel, 
using the bacon to fill in between or to put on top. 
For each 100 pounds of meat weigh out eight pounds 
of salt, two pounds of brown sugar, and two ounces 
of saltpeter. These are dissolved in four gallons of 
water and poured over the 
meat. In Winter it is not nec¬ 
essary to boil the brine, but it is 
safer to boil it before using in 
Summer. When boiled it should 
be thoroughly cooled before 
using. Bacon should be left in 
this brine about five weeks, and 
hams and shoulders about seven 
weeks, when they should be 
taken out and smoked. They 
are then ready for use, or they 
can be kept a long tfhie. If is 
desired to keep smoked hams 
and bacon through the Sum¬ 
mer they should be placed in 
a flour sack and buried in a 
grain bin, or kept in some place 
where there is an even tempera¬ 
ture, dry and free from insects. 
C. S. GREENE. 
A RUNNING START FOR THE PORK BARREL. Fig. 432. 
strips. 1 he snoulder cut is between the fourth and 
fifth ribs and the cut for the ham is about an inch 
and a half in front of the pelvic bones. 
Fig- 434 shows the split half hanging up at the 
left, the bacon strip next and the ham, shoulder and 
loin strip untrimmed. Fig. 433 shows the same 
pieces trimmed. Reading from right to left they are 
sparerib, ham, shoulder, bacon, loin and back fat. 
After the first three cuts are made which divide 
the side into the four parts shown in Fig. 436, the 
HOGGING OFF CORN.— 
We have seldom printed any¬ 
thing which appealed more for¬ 
cibly to stock men than the arti¬ 
cles on “hogging off” cornfields. This idea of let¬ 
ting the hog act as hired man to cut and husk the 
corn and then eat both stalk and grain appeals to 
many who are staggering with the hired help prob¬ 
lem. At first thought this plan seems wasteful or 
slovenly, and not at all suited to eastern conditions. 
When you come to study it and figure cost and 
returns you see there are chances in it for the east¬ 
ern farmer to overcome the great handicap of the 
labor question. 
