558 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December,. 
Hints on Hog Killing. 
J. M. STAHL. 
For heating scalding water and rendering lard, 
when one has not kettles or cauldrons ready set in 
brick or stone, a simple method is to put down two 
forked stakes firmly (figure 1), lay in them a pole 
to support the kettles, and build a wood fire 
around them on the ground. For a scalding tub, 
place a cask or hogshead firmly at the side of a 
platform. For heavy hogs one may use three 
strong poles, fastened at the top with a log chain 
which supports a simple tackle (figure 2).—A very 
good arrangement is shown in figure 3. A sled is 
made firm with driven stakes, and covered with 
planks or boards. At the rear end the scalding cask 
is set in the ground, its upper edge on a level with 
the platform, and inclined as much as it can be and 
hold sufficient water. A large, long hog is scalded 
one end at a time. The more the cask is inclined, 
the easier will be the lifting. Gambrels should 
be provided (of different lengths if the hogs vary 
much in size), like figure 4, or in other convenient 
shapes. These should be of hickory or other 
tough wood, for safety, and to be so small as to 
require little gashing of the legs to receive them. 
A hanging post, figure 5, is very convenient and 
very easily made—a strong upright post is deeply 
set, with arms mortised through it at the proper 
liiglit for supporting the hogs while washing and 
Fig. 2.— TACKLE FOR HEAVY HOGS. 
scraping down and removing entrails. Open a 
drain, or slope the ground towards the post, to 
carry water away from the feet of the operator, 
which should stand on a board in cold weather. 
A hog hook is indispensable. With this fastened in 
the roof of the mouth, the carcass is easily moved. 
The writer prefers shooting hogs with a rifle—the 
bullet striking a point where two lines would cross 
if drawn from each eye to the opposite ear. This 
produces more instantaneous death, and without 
bruising the surrounding ilesli like “knocking in 
the head” with an axe or sledge.—In scalding, wa¬ 
ter too hot sets the hair; too cold will not loosen it. 
A piece of old carpet thrown over the cask when 
not in use saves loss of heat. Experience is the 
best guide as to temperature. Have a few large 
stones in the fire under the scalding kettle, and 
plunge one of them into the water when too cool. 
[Three or four feet of wire fastened around a stone, 
with the other end bent into a loop or ring left out 
of the fire, facilitates handling such hot stones. — 
Eds.] If a spot of hair is obstinate, cover it with 
some of the removed hair, and dip on hot water. 
Always pull out hair and bristles ; shaving any off 
leaves unpleasant stilus in the skin.—Some cut off 
the head before removing the intestines. If this is 
done, after washing down well, cut the neck into the 
spinal column all round, and, while one man holds 
the body, another by quickly twisting the head re¬ 
moves it. Most leave the head on until cutting up. 
Skill and practice are needed to take out the in¬ 
testines neatly, without cutting or breaking them 
and soiling the flesh. Run the knife lightly down 
marking the belly straight, cut to the bone be¬ 
tween the thighs, and in front of the ribs and 
below, and split the rear bones with an axe care¬ 
fully, not to cut beyond them ; open the abdomen 
by running the hand or two fingers behind the 
knife with its edge turned outward. Little use of 
the knife is required to loosen the entrails. The 
fingers, rightly used, will do most of the severing. 
Small strong strings, cut in proper lengths, should 
be always at hand to quickly tie the severed ends 
of any small intestines cut or broken by chance. 
Fig. 3.— SCALDING CASK ON A SLED. 
An expert will catch the entire offal in a large 
tin pan or wooden vessel, holding it between him¬ 
self and the hog. Unskilled operators, and those 
opening very large hogs, need an assistant to hold 
this. The entrails, and then the liver, heart, etc., 
being all removed, thoroughly riuse out any blood 
or filth that may have escaped inside. Spread the 
cut edges apart by inserting a short stick between 
them to admit free circulation of cool air. When 
dripping is over, or the hanging posts are wanted 
for other carcasses, remove the dressed ones, and 
hang them in a cool cellar or other safe place until 
the whole flesh is thoroughly cooled through. Or 
if, for convenience and easier work, the carcasses 
are cut up before cooling, let all the pieces lie 
apart for at least half a day. Removing the lard 
from the long intestines requires expertness that 
can only be learned by practice. The fingers do 
most of this cleaner, safer, and better than a knife. 
A light feed the night before killing leaves the in¬ 
testines less distended and less likely to be broken. 
The Changes in Swine. 
BY F. D. COBURN, WYANDOTTE, KANSAS. 
The valuable improvements that have been en¬ 
grafted upon the swine stock of the corn-and-hog- 
produeing States, in the last fifteen years, have 
been so great as to be scarcely comprehended by 
those who have not been interested witnesses of 
the wonderful transformation. The white-haired 
hogs, formerly found on ninety-nine farms in a hun¬ 
dred, have been supplanted by others in which black 
predominates; this color comes from the English 
Berkshire, Essex, American Poland-China, or some 
Fig. 4. — A GAMBREL. 
of their numerous combinations. With the white 
hogs, there has also, in the same period, gone into 
obscurity the kind altogether too common in 
former times, known as the “land-pikes ” or “ha¬ 
zel-splitters.” The places of these arefilled in nearly 
every instance with animals of improved blood, ex¬ 
cept where some of the old, half-wild sort may still 
be found in a few of the more inaccessible portions 
of Southern Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, and 
Texas. The breeds that now furnish the bulk of 
the enormous hog-product of the country are 
Poland-Chinas and Berkshires (in about equal pro¬ 
portions), or more generally a cross between the; 
Fig. 5.— A HANGING POST. 
two, which affords hardy, quiet, good sized, good 
breeding and good feeding animals of their kind, 
thrt are well nigh porcine perfection. 
Twenty to forty years ago, the man who, by two 
or three years feeding and browsing, reared the 
largest swine, was considered the most successful 
pork raiser, likely to obtain and entitled to the 
highest price for his product. Now this is no 
longer the case, and the more intelligent and pros¬ 
perous are those who, in from nine to fifteen 
months, produce at a minimum cost the heaviest 
weight of hogs having the smallest offal, and uni¬ 
form in size, quality, condition, and style. The 
hogs with flat sides, coarse heads, ears and tails, 
long legs and heavy bristles, no longer find favor 
with breeders, feeders, packers, or consumers ; but 
the animals of quick growth, medium size, and the 
smallest offal, are the ones that command attention 
everywhere, and are preferred alike by the vil¬ 
lage purveyor and those who slaughter the mil¬ 
lions of pigs with which nations are fed. 
As in other industries, tlic-re appears to be a con¬ 
tinuous changing of opinion, dr, as it might be 
called, fashion, in swine production. Among these 
changes, as has been stated, is the one of color— 
from almost total white to almost total black. The 
explanation of this is, that the more practical farm¬ 
ers who raise swine most largely, have found, or 
at least believe they have, that the dark-haired hogs 
have a hardiness and vigor that enables them to 
withstand the blistering suns, the biting frosts, al¬ 
luvial mud and other vicissitudes incident to their 
being reared on so many of the comparatively un¬ 
improved farms in the great Mississippi Basin. An¬ 
other change is from raising those hogs that 
weighed a thousand pounds to such as- are consid¬ 
ered satisfactory if weighing a third of that. Still: 
another is the desire, that for two or three years 
has been gaining possession of a large number of 
good men, to raise one of the different sorts of' 
“ red ” hogs. There are some really superior speci¬ 
mens among these, but a majority of them as- 
bred and shown in the West are ungainly and lack¬ 
ing in finish. However, improvement is being 
made in the “ red ” hogs, and it is by no means; 
impossible that they may afford a foundation for,, 
or portion of, a combination that shall in the future 
be even superior as pork-makers and for breeding 
to anything the swine raisers at present possess. 
A still further change, or rather advance, is the 
founding within a few years past of pedigree re¬ 
gisters for swine. This was begun by the cham¬ 
pions of the Berkshires in America (or more prop¬ 
erly Illinois), followed by three, if not four, 
separate associations of Poland-China breeders, 
with as many different “ Records,” and just now by 
Berkshire breeders in England,and those in America 
who are believers in what they have officially 
designated as “Jersey Red, or Duroc ” swine. 
As a rule, these changes are in the direction of 
improvement, but in general quality such a highi 
standard has now been attained that further im¬ 
provement in that direction must, it would seem, 
be slow in the future as compared with the recent 
past, and those' who accomplish it will need 
to have perseverance, patience, and skill. 
