1 Junz, 1900.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 465 
After remaining in pickle for twenty-one days, take out and scrub with a 
Scrubbing brush, using hot water. After thoroughly cleaning, soak in cold 
Water for ten hours, then hang up in a dry place (not in a cellar), where there 
18 a good draught. If flies are troublesome, it is advisable to stop up any 
cracks or crevices with lard, then dust them over with pollard, which will stick 
to the oily substance and form an artificial skin. After hanging from fourteen 
to sixteen days it should be ready for the smokehouse. 
SMOKING BACON AND HAMS. 
The walls of the house should be 12 feet high. The smoke should be 
conducted to the bacon as cool as possible. My smokehouse is 13 feet high 
and 10 feet square ; I hang the hams and bacons close to the top in rows about 
6 inches apart. Stinkwort makes an excellent smoke. I kindle a small fire on 
the floor of the smokehouse, then place a few handsful of stinkwort (that which 
as been gathered while the sap was in it, and stowed away till dry) on the 
fire, and after it is nicely alight put a few handsful of sawdust on the top; then 
Place a sheet of galvanised iron on the top of the fire, which will cause it to 
Smoulder and produce smoke only. About 8 feet above the fire I suspend 
another piece of galvanised iron, so as to prevent any heat from the fire reaching 
the bacon. It usually takes about ten days to smoke properly, making a smoke 
as before mentioned every other day. 
AFTER CARE OF THE BACON AND HAMS. 
After leaving the smokehouse it is as well to go over the hams and hands 
with lard and pollard, and stop up any place that is likely to be attacked with 
flies. It is a good plan to place the hams and hands in calico bags, taking 
care to tie them tightly at the top. Hang them ina warm place; I hang my 
acon in a kitchen. I have strips of 3 x 8 deals fixed to the ceiling with hooks 
Screwed into them, and suspend the bacon there until the weather gets warm. 
Then I pack it away in bran or sawdust, which must be dry. It should be 
taken out every six weeks and examined, and if found to be getting mildewed or 
to be sweating, it should be rubbed dry with a cloth; then add a little chaff to 
the sawdust or bran. If you use bran, be sure to see that it is free of mite. 
If possible, keep the hams and bacon in an even temperature. ‘Too much 
heat will cause the fat to melt and turn rusty, and if too damp it will sweat and 
decay. By treating and curing your bacon by this process you will have an 
article that will always command a good price and will keep for many years. 
The fat remains sweet and the lean soft and savory. This treatment is based 
Upon a pig weighing 200 lb. A smaller one does not require to be kept in 
ickle or smokehouse so long. A heavier pig will require to be kept longer. 
Lhe longer you use the brine the better it is. It may require boiling occasion- 
ally. 
CURING PORK. 
Here is a good recipe for curing pork, so that it can be kept in our hot 
climate. The proportions are to 1,000 lb. pork take 10 quarts fine salt, 3 Ib. 
brown sugar, and a little meee (dissolved). Mix and rub on the meat as 
Soon as cut up. The meat is laid on a board about ten days, then sewn up in 
a cloth bagging. 
The leading essentials in form of a bacon pig are—First, good length and 
depth of body without excessive width; secondly, limbs strong and of medium 
Size ; and, third, head and ears and neck of medium size. That is not a bacon 
Pig which has a very short compact body, a frame broad in proportion to its 
ength, and that stands on small and short legs. It is a lard pig. Nor is that 
a bacon pig which is razor back and greyhound in its build. It is a scrub that 
Would soon eat its owner poor. The bacon pig is not a hard feeder. It is a 
pig that will turn its food, not into an unhealthy substance that melts away in 
Cooking, but it will turn it into a good meat. 
