American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 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 writers for simply
what they deserve, we shall find, trst,
that pork is not a contemplate, useless
unwholesome, and unsubstantial food ;
and man who has to do IA 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 principally
needed by the organism of laboring
man to repair the continual organic
wastes of material. as modified and in
creased by hard labor. 1t 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 a laboring
man; but so can beef and mutton and
every thing 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 writers
and lecturers are anxious to make us
believe. While he body of almost every
other domesticated animal contains be-
tween 66 and 10 per cent. of water the
body of IL fat pig contained, according to
analysis made iii the Royal Agricultural
College at Eldena, in Prussia, only 45.3
per cent; and the remainder. the water
free substance, contained 20 per cent.
of proteine substances, 27.l per cent. of
fat, and 3 per cent of mineral sub
stances. 1t 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 firmness 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 good deal of muscle,
if the same have comparatively but little
blood of the small breeds of a Southern
climate, and produce soft and oily pork
if the same have but little, or scarcely
any, blood of the old hog of England or
of Central Europe. The food also causes
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 Ieeding corn
The fat of hogs fattened with barley be-
comes fluid at 1852 Fahrenheit, and
the fat of hogs fattened with oats at
100 A. Fahrenheit The former when
fluid stiflcns in one hour at Il temperature
of $500 Fahrenheit, and the latter in six
hours at Il temperature of 1872 Fahren-
hclt. Consequently, one who prefers
very solid pork must choose a pig of
large breed, and must fatten it with bar
ley, and one who desires his pork soft
may select small breed and fatten the
same with corn or with oats.
1t may be well to remark here that the
feeding of much salt Chloride of sodi-
UNI 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, a general rule,
SO much neglected by its owner and left
to its own resources before it is fattened
for the shambles as a pig; and still there