Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1852-07-21

AN Hour IN SLAUGHTER R-HoUsE--Aside
from the prodigious number of hogs, cattle,
sheep and calves disposed of, there is an inter-
est in watching the machine-like order Of the
work. The butchers yard and building is, of
course not very neat place, while the blood
and offal of two thousand hogs day pass thro'
them. The saughter-house is situated in some
retired hollow, with small stream passing be-
meath it, and is, generally, cheap temporary
building.
The hogs of each drove are kept in sepa-
rate pen, till the hour of execution, when de-
voted few, say thirty or forty, are compelled
much against their will, to march up platform
within the building. Here, man with an iron
sledge goes among them, and strikes them on
the head with a dull, sckening sound, and they
fall without squeal While in a senseless
state, they are thrown upon q grating near the
scalding vats, where they are stuck, and the
blood flows into the stream below.
The vats are wide enough to place hog
crosswise, and long enough to hold ten or
twelve at time; and there are in large estab-
lshments, two watts, on each side Of which are
five or six men, making twenty in all. The wa
ter is kept hot by steam, and the carcasses are
constantly kept turning and stirring as they pass
along, so that when they reach the farther end
hauled out and hung up by the heels for gut
ting.
The man who strikes them puts mark on
the leg of each, to show who is the owner a
hog is pushed from the grating all quivering
and bloody, into the scalding water, about once
in half minute, and clean carcass is hauled
out of the other end Of the vat as frequently,
and also another taken from the gambrel and
carried to the hooks as often, where he hangs
till the next morning to cool. For two vats,
about fifty men are required.
The next morning four or six horse team
appears at the slaughIer-house bright and early,
and piling the stiff carcasses into huge rack,
conveys them to the packers. The butcher, in
stead of being paid for his expense, pays the
drover something-eight, or ten, or twelve cents
head-for the chance and all the ohFal belongs
to him, including everything taken from the an
imal.
At the packers, which is in more public part
of the city, the hog is weighed, and two men
place his body on a bench. On each side of
the bench stand two strong men, with huge
ceavers, more dreadful than an eXecutoner's AK,
on which they put n keen edge between each
blow. One stroke, given simultaneously by
each of them, sewers the head, and also the hind
quarters, from the trunk These are thrown
in different directions to be trimmed and cured
One of the cutters turns the trunk on its
back, and holds it open, while the other splits it
along the backbone Each one takes half, and
the leaf-lard being torn out cuts off the shoul-
ders, and, at four strokes, the sides are cut in
the proper form. The hog disappears in differ
ent directions, and in about half minute from
the time he was put on the bench, another takes
his place to undergo the same process. The
pieces designed for mess-pork are salted into a
barrel, headed up, filled with brine, rolled into
the street, put on dray carried to the river, and
the hog may be on his way to New Orleans, as
pork, within twenty-four hours after he crossed
the ferry from Kentuky.