The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-02-11
PORK PACKING.
How Hogs are Slaughtered and Prepared.
The Various Steps in an Interesting
Process.

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From the Chicago Tribune we extract til
following graphic and interesting account @
pork packing at the Chicago Union Stock
Yards, the great hog depot of Iowa, Ne
braska, Kansas and Illinois
The lightning process by which hog il
slaughtered, cleaned, quartered and sailed
is general nystery to those who are not i'm
mediately concerned in the business. II
witness the entire process of killing and pack
ing, one must not only devote whole day t.
it but is obliged to
| WADE IN WARM BLOOD soLE-DEEP
during portion of his observations This il
not very encouraging prospect for one in
clined to timidity, and there are very few who
are ever DESTROYS of venturing on the under
taking The amount of information. how
ever, which one can CLEAN in a thorough
survey of the Stock-Yard region, will more
than counterbalance any little inconvenience
which the pursuer of knowledge may en-
counter in his trip.
| THE PACKING SEASON
proper begins the LIST of November and lasts
until the end Of February. There are eight
packing houses now in operation at the stock
yards, five of which do business on direct
English accounts, the meat being packed in
bulk and condition most suited to foreign
taste. The hog market is principally supplied
by the States of Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and
Illinois, although the Nebraska supply this
season has ruled weak, owing to the recent
grasshopper devastation which has forced the
majority Of hog raisers in that State to ship
their hogs to Iowa to be fattened.
In most cases the hogs are sent to the
Stock Yards in lots of three or for carloads,
consigned to a commission merchant or
broker On their arrival at the yards
THE HOGS ARE RUN ON SCALE
in patches Of about fifty, the weighing ap-
paratus being surrounded by a strong paling,
and the weight of each scale-full accurately
noted. The entire drove is then placed in
sectional pens in the yard proper, and a GER
tiicate of their gross weight given to the
drover or broker, as the case may be. This
individual then proceeds to ascertain the
STATE OF THE HOG MARKET,
and, if his observations prove favorable, he
sells the stock at the prevailing price. If he
finds, however, that the market is dull, and
is Of the opinion that, including the expense
Of feeding and pennage, he can command a
higher profit by holding off, he refuses to
sell, and the hogs await rise in the market
Hogs, however, are seldom held long at the
Stock Yards by the drover, as the cost of their
keeping is quite a consideration where the
prospect of small profit is concerned,
On receiving bill of sale for the hogs, the
packer masses them into one drove, to be
SENT TO THE sLAUGHTERING-PENs,
and here the last trouble of the poor piggies
and the genuine excitement of the observer
begin. Following in the rear of the drove
are the usual Stock Yard concomitants in tie
form of pork spectators, drovers, and q
heavy sprinkling of shepherd dogs, whose duty
&c for ord al nlxy {ha
The packing-house slaughtering- pen of each
pen is sufficiently large to accommodate
days killing. Into this Enclosure the hogs
are driven. amid loud oaths and cries of
''soh, son. from the drivers, who are kept
continually on the alert by refractory swine,
which perhaps have vague understanding
of the fate in store for them. The slaughter
ing is performed in most of the packing
houses in the top story of the building. The
hogs are
FORCED UP A SLIGHTLY INCLINED STAIRWAY
by the monotonous yelling of the drivers
The stairs are attached to the side of the
building, being boarded on the outside in or
der that the hogs, on once entering the cor
raj, may be prevented from returning. On
arriving at tina top of the stairway the grunt-
ers find themselves in an immense pen, which
has an opening at the farther end AS the
pen fills up, the foremost hogs are pushed
into
SMALLER ENCLOSURE
by the irresistible force of the advancing
drove. Here sad fate awaits them. The
inner apartment is sufficiently large to &C.
commodate about two dozen hogs, and is
occupied by man who is styled s'the cate b.
en-" The duty of this individual is to seize
each animal in turn by a hind leg, as fast as
it enters the pen, and attach to it chain
about three feet in length, and, in the lam
guage Of the catcher, termed a shackle. The
shackle is then attached to pulley operated
by steam power, and the hog is quickly drawn
up to a distance of about feet from the
floor, and amid Babel of squealing the end
of the chain is dropped into groove set on
massive iron bar, between 8 and 10 feet in |
length. From the smaller pen to the salt
barrel his pigship practically ceases to exist,
as he is no sooner swung upon the bar, kick
ing and squealing, than he is
RECEIVED BY THE BUTCHER OR 'ssTICKER,"
like sharpness, deity sewers the two principal |
arteries in the hogs throat as he slides along
the rail. The ''sticker" is assisted by a boy, J
who steadies each animal for the fatal thrust
From the sticking pen the hog is passed along
the inclined rail to the scalding-vat, which
has a trap-ike entrance, on the side of which
are placed slanting rollers. The hogs leg is
there released from the shackle and the body
falls into the scalding-vat, which is about
twenty feet long, eight feet wide, and seven
feet deep. By his momentum, and the help
Of workmen, armed with long poles, the now
inanimate carcass is borne steadily along to
the end of the vat The object of this forcible
passage is to etfectually loosen the bristles, in
order that the scraper can easily remove them.
On arriving at the end of the vat, the hog is
lifted upon an elevated surface by the semi
circular rake which operates like the fly of a
printing press. At this point
THE LITTLE ARMY OF sCRAPERs
receive him, and he is hustled along the
'craping- board by workmen who are experts
n the business. The scraping- board is about