  Whatever may be said as to the most humane modes of putting to death domestic animals intended for food, butchering with the knife, all things considered, is the best method to pursue with the hog. The hog should be bled thoroughly when it is killed. Butchering by which the heart is pierced or the main artery leading from it severed, does this in the most effectual way, ridding the matter of the largest percentage of blood, and leaving it in the best condition for curing and keeping well. The very best bacon cannot be made of meat that has not been thoroughly freed from blood, and this is a fact that should be well remembered. Expert butchers, who know how to seize and hold the hog and insert the knife at the proper place, are quickly through with the job, and often before the knife can be withdrawn from the incision, the blood will spurt out in a stream and insensibility and death will speedily ensue. It is easy, however, for a novice to make a botch of it; hence the importance that none but an expert be given a knife for this delicate operation. There are some readily made devices by which one man at killing time may do as much as three or four, and with one helper a dozen hogs may be made into finished pork between breakfast and dinner, and without any excitement or worry or hard work. It is supposed that the hogs are in a pen or pens, where they may be easily roped by a noose around one hind leg. This being done, the animal is led to the door and FIG. 5. HEATING WATER IN KETTLES. NECESSARY AIDS.Before the day for slaughter arrives, have everything ready for performing the work in the best manner. There may be a large boiler for scalding set in masonry with a fireplace underneath and a flue to carry off the smoke. If this is not available, a large hogshead may be utilized at the proper time. A long table, strong and immovable, should be fixed close to the boiler, on which the hogs are to be drawn after having been scalded, for scraping. On each side of this table scantlings should be laid in the form of an open flooring, HEATING WATER FOR SCALDING.For heating scalding water and rendering lard, when one has no kettles or cauldrons ready to set in brick or stone, a simple method is to put down two forked stakes firmly, as shown in Fig. 5, lay in them a pole to support the kettles, and build a wood fire around them on the ground. A more elaborate arrangement is shown in Fig. 6, which serves not only to heat the water, but as a scalding tub as well. It is made of two-inch pine boards, six feet long and two feet wide, rounded at the ends. A heavy plate of sheet iron is nailed with wrought nails on the bottom and ends FIG. 6. PRACTICAL HEATING AND SCALDING VAT. |
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