The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1875-11-18
"A WONDERFUL OPERATION.
| How the Cincinnati Hog Is Taken In aud
Done For-What n Visitor Saw.

How the Cincinnati Hog is Taken in aud
Done For-What Visitor Saw.
BY the improved processes of slaugh-
tering, within the brief space of two
and half minutes hog loses his place
in the world as portion of the vitalized
creation and becomes so much bacon, so
many spare-ribs and such a quantity of
lard. AS the process involves the per
sonality of the hog to some extent, we
will begin with him in his living, breath
ing form. He is contained in an i'm
mense pen on the ground floor of the
building. and there are good many of
him, say I've or six hundred at time.
The porcine grunters having had their
doom duly sealed, spoken their last
Words" and tearfully handed around
among their ailing and spared compan-
| ions few locks of bristles and memen-
| toes, are driven up gangway to the
slaughter pen, where an able-bodied
colored gentleman claps a chain around
their hind legs, one at time, and the
pres ure of steam lever jerks the strug-
CLING aud loudly squealing pig into the
zontal bar about thirty feet long. The
chain by which he is suspended slides
along the bar, and before he fairly COM
prehends the situation another man,
CORY to his very armpits, plunges a
knife into his throat, and taps the life
current. He squeals and kicks about
half a second, and before the "vital
spark has fled has beside him former
comrade of the pen, who has met with
the same misfortune, and, with him, is
on the way to meet his Gadarene ances
tors. There is constant line of stuck
hogs passing down this elevated bar, and
when they get to the end of it they are
dead, and are pumped into an enormous
tank of boiling water. The great per
sonal pride of pig-sticker is to have
very little if any squealing on the part
of hog after he introduces his knife
into his jugular.
The hogs take their post morten warm
bath, into which they are plunged from
the iron rod, eight and ten at time,
and, by means of a revolving iron skid
operated by steam at one end of the
tank, are thrown out singly upon large
wooden table, on which they are scraped
by twelve or fifteen men. They start in
rough, dingy and dirty at one end of the
table, and reach the other end as clean
and white as may be. At the far end oi
the table one cuts off the head, another
| flops the bloodless trunk over to the
gang below, who "gut" him, hang
him up and cool him off with stream
of water. The beheading process is new
here, 1 believe, and comes from acepha-
lous Chicago. 1t is claimed that by cut
ting off the head the hog is more speed
lily cooled, and that the tongue and head
pieces are got at day in advance of the
old method. The hams are also "faced'
and the inside fat taken out while the
hog is still warm, instead of waiting fol
1t to cool as formerly, and the innova-
tion is said to be very advantageous.
When the heads have been cut off, the
entrails and fatty substance taken out
and the hams dressed, the cleaned hogs
are hung on rllnways between the ioist
of the drying-room and run into that de.
partment to cool. Nearly all the houses
on the avenue will chang" about 3, SOC
hogs on the floor. In this room, when
the hogs are sufficiently cool, they are
cut up into all the various forms of porl;
hams, shoulders, middles, etc., and
the men who do the cutting use thei1
knives and saws with the skill and pre-
cision of anatomists, cleaning a bone
when it is to be thrown away SO perfect
ly that hungry dog would pass it by
in disgust.
Since the adoption of the new method
of taking off the heads and "facing
the hams in the killing the cutters
work very fast and to much better
advantage. To cut up a Thousand
hogs is now considered only a fair days
work for one man, and in the busy sea
son even more than that amount of work
is exacted. All of the houses are sup
piled with huge iron watts extending from
the killing-room to the floor below, il
which the fatty portions of the hog are
boiled or steamed into lard. An i'm
provement known as "Caldwell's mau
head" has recently been made to these
watts. 1t is manhead in the center o.
the bottom of the tank instead of at the
side as III the old tanks, and its utility il
that when the cooking process is com
plete it is opened and the "chowder
or slush," as the refuse of the lard il
called, drops ont at once. The old tank
had to cool so as to allow man to gC
into them and shovel out the chow
der, and that generally required two o.
three hours. When the lard is done
it is pumped into an elevated galvanized
receiver called "zig zag," some thirt,
by twelve feet square, and traversed b,
cutters aggregating in length nearl!
four hundred feet. The lard having
passed through these cutters passe
through a long pipe to another receiver
from which it is drawn into the tierce
in wnichit finds its way to market. Tht
bristles go to the brush factory or mat
tress-maker the brains become "head
cheese" the feet are sold at the restaur
ant as =" Irish quail" and the blooc
flows into big wooden vessel directl,
under the killer, is warmed by stean
pipes until it congealsi into a sort of Jelly
and is then readily sold as fertilizer.