1868 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
329 
the absorption of many of the small farms into 
large ones, and the cultivation of the land upon 
a grander scale. There is no doubt that, 'with 
suitable capital and skill, a 400-acre farm can be 
worked much more economically than a farm 
of fifty acres. It would require no more over¬ 
seeing and hut little more capital for imple¬ 
ments and buildings. The expenses for labor, 
fertilizers, and stock, would, of course, be much 
larger. There is an increasing love of rural 
pursuits in this country, and most men who are 
accumulating wealth in our cities are purposing 
to have, at no distant day, a country home. 
Many have already realized their dream, and 
are firming by proxy on a generous scale. We 
were surprised in our trip through the Middle 
and Western Stales last summer to find so many 
bankers, merchants, and professional men in 
cities, carrying on farms in the suburbs. This 
we found was generally done by a foreman, re¬ 
siding upon the farm with his family, and board¬ 
ing the hands. Thousands of men of capital 
would be glad to do this if they could find suit¬ 
able men to manage the busiuess for them, and 
make it pay. They do not understand farming 
themselves, or have not the requisite time to 
attend to it. They would be glad to buy the 
farm and furnish the capital, and pay any man 
a handsome salary who would wisely direct la¬ 
bor and make the investments pay. Thousands 
of men properly trained would find profitable 
occupation as foremen on such places, if they 
could be had. Here, then, is a field for our 
agricultural colleges which they ought to enter 
immediately. And if it were known that they 
made a business of training practical men to fill 
places waiting for them, there would be in a 
short time as great a rush to the agricultural, 
as theye now is to the “commercial” colleges. 
These institutions would begin to supply a want 
that is felt, and the reproach that farmers’ sons 
are not found among their students would be 
taken away. It could not fail to have a very 
important influence upon the development of 
our agriculture, and all depending upon it. 
Manure the Test of Good Farming. 
We farm for profit as a rule, however many 
exceptions there may be. This profit which 
we all seek comes from the sale of the products 
of the land, or from that of animals fed upon 
them. This divides farming operations in¬ 
to two classes, and determines the nature of 
them, and the system pursued upon different 
farms, or upon different fields of the same 
farm. By far the greater number of farmers 
pursue a mixed system, deriving their income 
in part from crops sold, and in part from ani¬ 
mal products. With such animal manure is a 
necessity, and the success of a farmer may be 
predicated upon the amount he makes and 
uses. A temporary exception to this rule is 
seen on some of the virgin lands of the We'st, 
and wherever apparently inexhaustible fertility 
of soil renders manure superfluous. Where a 
system of green manuring for wheat and Indian 
corn, with the addition of lime and plaster, and 
perhaps bone dust occasionally, is sufficient 
with good tillage to maintain fertility, farmers 
have an economical substitute for animal 
manures. This system may often be profitably 
applied to “out-fields,” and occasionally to en¬ 
tire farms. Manure — barn-yard manure, or 
more properly, barn manure, for the yard is a 
poor place, at best, to make it—regarding both 
quantity and quality, must be considered the 
measure of good farming, and the test of success. 
The Abattoirs at Communipaw 
New York has an excellent code of sanitary 
laws, and many changes have been made which 
tend to sanitary reform. One of the most marked 
improvements in this respect is restricting 
the killing of animals to large slaughtering- 
houses or abattoirs, after the plan followed in 
European cities. In the engraving on the fol¬ 
lowing page is represented one of the largest of 
these, the abattoir at Communipaw, N. J. It 
is located on the New Jersey Central Railroad, 
about two miles below Jersey City, and nearly 
three miles from Washington Market. 
The building stands upon “made land,” and 
is so arranged that boats find ready access to 
the side of the building at all times of tide,, 
which greatly facilitates the prompt removal of 
all offal as soon as it is collected. The slaugh¬ 
ter-house, fig. 1, is 620 ft. long, by 60 ft. wide, 
with an ell 100 feet in length by 40 feet wide 
across the end. It is two stories high. Behind 
this building, and not shown in the engraving, is 
another building 40 ft. square, which is the 
sheep slaughtering-house. The first floor of the 
main building is devoted to the killing of cattle, 
of which we indicate only the general features. 
The immense floor of the cattle department is 
divided transversely into “ beds,” fourteen in 
number, each “ bed ” consisting of a pen for 
the cattle, a fat-cleaning room, a space of 
15 ft. square for killing and dressing, and a 
drying space to hang the dressed carcasses. 
Over the portion devoted to killing and dressing 
the cattle there runs a long iron shaft, which is 
turned bysteam, and is so arranged that all lift¬ 
ing is done quickly and easily. Three men and 
a boy to help, together with a man to clean the 
fat, are all that are required to work a “ bed ” to 
its full capacity. The drying space in this room 
is sufficient to hang up 1,900 bullocks at once. 
The hog department, fig. 2, is on the second 
floor of the same building. The hogs, when 
they arrive by the cars, are unloaded and driven 
into large pens for their accommodation, in a 
building 800 ft. long b) r 100 ft. wide, fig. 1. 
This building is two stories high. The first or 
ground floor is used for storing hogs, the second 
for storing sheep. Each floor is divided into 
pens of convenient size, which are kept con¬ 
stantly supplied with fresh water; there are 
troughs and racks for feeding, and the animals 
are here given an opportunity to rest and eat 
until killing time. The alley-ways and gates 
of these pens are so arranged that the animals 
are lead, rather than driven from the pens, to 
the slaughtering-house. A view of the gang¬ 
way leading to the second story is seen in fig. 1. 
One boy will easily drive 1,000 hogs or sheep. 
Arrived at the slaughtering-house the animal 
finds itself in a pen similar to the one it has just 
left, and its fear and anxiety are greatly lessened. 
So rapidly is the act of killing performed that 
the cruelly which might otherwise occur is al¬ 
most entirely done away with. In the bleeding 
department, fig. 2, three men and a boy are re¬ 
quired. The hogs are seized by one of the hind 
legs, and by means of a short chain suspended 
to a hook, which has a wheel so arranged that 
it will run in a circular track stationed above 
the pen, fig. 2. As soon as the animal is se¬ 
cured it is passed around by means of this track 
to the “bleeder,” who sticks it in the usual man¬ 
ner and passes it on to the boy, who stands 
ready to loosen the chain and let the hog down 
into the scalding tank as soon as dead. The 
scalding tank, fig. 2, is 12 ft. long by 5i ft. wide, 
and requires tw r o men as “scalders,” to tend it. 
As soon as a hog is ready, it is caused to float 
upon a sort of fork that works by means of a 
lever, and is thus rolled upon the scraping table. 
At this table, which is 20 ft. long by 5 ft. wide, 
stand 14 men, seven on each side. The first 
two take off the bristles and long, stiff hairs, 
which are saved in barrels. The animal is 
then passed to the next eight, four on each side, 
who are designated “ scrapers ”; they take off 
the bulk of the hair, and pass the hog along to 
the last four, who are called “cleaners”; these 
clean the head and feet, and more difficult parts. 
At the end of the table stauds a man known as 
the “ gambrel cutterlie puts in the gambrel 
and again the hog is suspended on a circular 
railway, as before. It is at once passed along to 
the “gutters,” who stand at the end of the fat¬ 
cleaning table. Their duty is to take out the 
intestines, liver, heart, and lungs, which is all 
done at once, and deposited by them on the fat¬ 
cleaning table, where six men are employed for 
that purpose. The hog is next passed. to the 
washer, where it is thoroughly washed and 
scraped down with a large knife. The carcass 
is now ready for the drying-room. 
At the head of the drying-room there is a one 
track railway, along which is run, on awheel 
and hook like the rest, a two-pronged lever or 
fork. This fork is so placed as to lift the hog 
by the gambrel and transport him from the 
dressing-rack to any one of the “ slides” in the 
drying room. It is then placed in the slide, 
pushed back close to its fellow, and left to drain 
and cool, fig. 2. The hog slaughtering-house is 
divided into six compartments, similar to the 
one described, and the drying-room has hang¬ 
ings or slides for six thousand hogs at once. 
The fat as fast as it is cleaned is carted by means 
of box trucks to the rendering tanks, which 
are ten in number, and each of which has a 
capacity sufficient for the fat from one thousand 
hogs. The lungs, hearts, and livers, together 
with all the rough fat, are also put into render¬ 
ing tanks, especially kept for that purpose, and 
the “lard” thus obtained is used for making 
oil. The steam arising from these immense 
tanks of boiling fat is made to pass through 
escape valves into a long coil of iron pipe, 
which is immersed in a large tank of running 
water. Here the contained steam is partly con¬ 
densed. From this tank a pipe passes some three 
hundred feet out into the Bay, where the steam 
and gases escape under water. No disagree¬ 
able odor ever arises from the fat department. 
The offal and blood as fast as accumulated are 
taken by box trucks to the barge-gangway, 
where a boat is at all times ready to receive the 
refuse matter. This offal is here thoroughly 
mixed with deodorizers, and removed every 
night to the Passaic River Guano Factories, 
where it is used for the purpose of manufactur¬ 
ing fertilizers.. After the day’s work is done at 
the abattoir the whole floor of the slaughtering 
house is flooded with water and thoroughly 
washed. The washings escape into the Bay by 
means of gutters and pipes, and are carried by 
the tide far out from land. This abattoir was 
erected at great expense, and for the first year, 
owing to a prejudice on the part of the butchers, 
was but little used. But since the Board of 
Health has been sustained by the courts in 
its decision, that no slaughtering should be 
done in the built up portions of New York, the 
business has increased, and it is now running 
nearly to its full capacity. The advantages of 
an abattoir of the kind here described are so 
great that no city or large town should allow 
slaughtering to be done in any other manner. 
