Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1875-12-23
How Hegs Are Batchered In Cincin-
natl.

By the i'm proved processes of slaughter
ing, within the brief space of two and a
half minutes hog loses his place in the
world as a portion of the yitalized crea-
ton and becomes so much bacon, so many
spare ribs and such a quantity Of lard
As the process involves the personality OF
the hog to some extent we will begin with
him in lhis living, breathing form. He is
contained i'm an immense pen on the
ground floor of the building and there arc
good many of him, say fiye'or six hun
dred at time.
The p0rcinc grunters having had their
doom duly sealed, spoken their last
words,'' and tcarfully handed around
among their ailing and spared comp6n-
ions "a ewlocks of brisiles and mementoes,
are driven up a gangway to the slaughter
pen, where an able-bodied aolored gentle.
man claps chain around their hind legs,
one at time. and the pressure of steam
levG jerks the struggling and loudly.
squealing pig into the air. He is now sus-
pended ON horizontal bar, about thirty
feet dong. The chain by which he is sus-
pended slides along the bGr, and before
lac fairly comprehends the situation an
other man, CORY to the very arm-pits,
plunges IA knife irto his throat and taps
the fe,current. lie sgueals and kicks
about half second, and before the vital
spark has fed" has beside him former
comrade of the pen, who has met with the
same misfortune, and, with him, is on
the way 10 meet his Gadarone ancestors.
There is constant Ii ne,0f stuck hogs
passing down this elevated bar, and when
they get to the end of il they ere dead,
and plunged into an enormous tank of
boiling water The great personal pride
Of pig stioker is TO have very little II
any saueahng on the part .a hog after
ne Introduces his knife into his jugular.
The hogs take their post-sa0rtem wanm
bath, into which they are plunged from
the iron nod, eight and ten at time, and,
by means of revolving iron skid, 'op-
Grated by steam AT one end of the tank,
are thrown out singly upon long, wooden
table, ON which they are scraped by twelve
or fifteen men They start in rough,
shaggy and dirty at one end of the table
and reach the other end az clean and
white as may be. At the far end Of the
table one man cuts off the mead, another
Hops the bloodIess trunk over TO
gang below, who remove the entrsdls
hang him Gp and cool him of with a
large stream cd water II is claimed that
by cutting otf the head the hog Is more
speedily cooled, and that the lard, tongue
and head pieces are got at a day in ad-
vance Of the old method. The hams ARE
also +" faced and the inside fat taken out
while the hog is still warm, instead OF
waiting for Il to cool as formerly, and
the innovation is said TO be very advan-
tage0us. #al
When the heads have been cut oil, the
entrails and fatty substance taken out,
and hams dressed, the cleaned hogs are
hung on runvays between the joists OF
the drying-room and run into thai depart
inent to cool Nearly all the houaes ON
the avenue will hang" about ], 800 hogs
on floor In tlls room, when the hogs
are sufficiently cool, they are cut up into
all the various forms of pork--banls,
shoulders, middlcs. etc and the men who
do the cutting Use their knives and SAWS
with the skill and precision OF anaiomisis,
cleaning bone 80 thoroughly when II ID
thrown away that 4 hungry dog would
pass il by with disgust.
Since the adoption of the new method
of taking off the heads and facing" the
hams in the killing room the cutters work
very fast, and to much better advantage
To cut up thousand hogs h now consid-
cred only fair days work for one man.
and in tile busy season even more than
that amount OF work IL exacted. All the
houses are supplied with huge iron watts,
extending from the killing room TO the
floor below, in which the fatty portions
Of the hogs are boiled, or steamed into
lard. An Improvement, known as Cald-
wells manhead," has recently been made
20 these yats 1t il . mAnhead In the cen
Ter Of the bottom of the tank, instead OF In
the side, as in the old tanks, and It's utll-
lty 10 that when the cooking process 10
complete, 1t is opened, and the " chowder"
or assiuab.r rs the refuse OF this lard is
called. drops out at once. The old tanks
had 10 cool, 70 allow a man to go into
them ard shovel out The chogders and
that generally required two or three hours.
When the lard 10 "done" 1t is pumped
into an elevated galvanized receiver.
called "zig.zzg,' some thirty by twelve
feet square, and traversed by gnfiers az.
prcrating in length nearly 40 feet, Jlt