The Western advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1872-1874, 1874-08-29
Pork as an Article of Food.

If we examine the case from an I'M
partial and unbiased standpoint, and di
vest all that has been said against pork
and porkers from everything that is i'm.
aginary or not true, and take the fanati-
cism, the idiosyncracies,a and the ignorance
of those lecturers and writer's for simply
what they deserve, we shall find, first,
that pork is not a contemplate, useless,
unwholesOme, and unsubstantial food
and man who has to do a hard days
work, and has to eat his bread in the
sweat of his face, does by no means de-
spise it, but prefers it very often to the
choicest beef or mutton. This is but
natural, for pork furnishes more almost
than anything else, not only the elements
required to support the respiratory proc
ess, but also those which are princi pally
needed by the organism Of laboring
man to repair the continual organic
wastes of material, as modified and in
creased by hard labor. It is true that
pork can be too fat, or be too badly
served or prepared by the cook to be
tasty, even to the palate of laboring
man. but SO can beef and mutton and
everything else, as can be found out very
easily in certain boarding houses.
Neither is pork so very unsubstantial an
article of food as some Of those writer's
and lecturers are anxious to make US
believe. While the body of almost every
other domesticated animal contains be-
tween 66 and IS per cent. of water, the
body of a fat pig contained, according to
analysis made in the Royal Agricultural
College at Eldena, in Prussia, only Ash
per cent. and the remainder. the water
free substance, contained 20.1 per cent
of protcinc substances 27.l per cent. of
fat, and per cent. of mineral sub
stances. It is true that pork is not so
rich in nitrogen as beef, for instance
but it is not nitrogen alone that is re-
quired in the food.
Pork of course is not always of the
same quality. Its frmness or softness
and oiliness, respectively, depend, first,
upon the breed of the animal, and, sec.
ondly, upon the kind of food with which
the same has been fattened. The So
called improved breeds produce firm
pork, containing a good deal OF. muscle,
if the same have comparatively but little
blood of the small breeds of a Southern
climate, and produce a soft and oily pork
if the same have but little, or scarcely
any, blood of the old hog of England OF
VI NCACl Ill AuIOpC. 1Hc IooeA Hioc NduoCe
considerable difference in the quality of
the pork. Barley produces the firmest
and most solid pork, and oats produce
the softest-even softer and more oily
than that produced by feeding corn
The fat of hogs fattened with barley be.
comes fluid at 1859 Fahrenheit, and
the fat Of hogs fattencd with oats at
100.4o Fahrenheit. The former, when
fluid, stitfcns in one hour at temperature
of $500 Fahrenheit, and the latter in six
hoursat a temperature of 1888 Fahren'
heit. Consequently, one who prefers
very solid pork must choose a pig of q
large breed, and must fattcn it with bar
ley, and one who desires his pork soft
may select small breed and fattcn the
same with corn or with oats.
It may be we'll to remark here that the
feeding of much salt Chloride of sodi-
um) is injurious to pigs, and interferes
with their growth and with the process
of fattening. Investigating further, we
shall find, secondly, that pigs are much
better than their reputation, and have
done and are doing much more for man.
kind than mankind has done, and is do
ing, for them. First, there is no domesti-
Gated animal, that is, as a general rule,
so much neglected by its owner and left
to its own resources before it is fattened
for the shambles as apig; and still there