The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1885-01-17
SLAUGHTERING SWINE.
How Hogs are Butchered with Neat
ness and Despatch-Interesting
Points About P0rkers.

Hundreds of people who relish nice
pork steak, or roast, have not the remot
est idea of the way in which hogs are
butchered, scientifically speaking. Far
mers and other of course kill hogs for
their own use Their method is simple
but effective SO far as the mere killing of
the hog is concerned. A gun or an axe
is used to knock the brains out of the
victim, after which the hog is stuck, and
then comes the sOusing process in a bar.
rel of hot water, and the bristles are next
scraped of But where hog slaughtering
is made business the killing process is
vastly different. In fact no comparison
can be made. An ARGUS reporter visited
the slaughter house of Mr.. j. S. Gilmore
last evening, and was shown around by
Mr.. Denis Coleman, the gentlemanly
foreman, who explained to him the modus
operaudi of scientific butchering. The
slaughter honse is we'll adapted for its
purpose, being roomy and conveniently
arranged.
To begin with, there is good sized yard
southwest of the slaughter house, where
the hogs to be butchered are corralcd
From this yard chute or drive leads to
the second story of the slaughter house.
Up this chute the porkers are driven to
their doom. They are admitted by asmall
doorway, and as one comes in he is
caught by hind leg and whipped off his
feet into the air head downward
\ man with a keen knife and steady
hand sticks the elevated porkcr, sewers
ing the prominent veins in his neck and
the hog soon bleeds to death. BY an in
genious device ne is precipitatcd into the
scalding tank where every particle of hair
on his body is soon loose, then by anolh>
er device, 4 sort of scoop shaped affair
made of heavy iron and worked by man
on each side OF the scalding tank, the de-
funct hog is elevated upon a long table
and in the twinkling of an eye the ''Scra,
pers have the bristles all off him. He is
then showed along to the end of the table
where another ingenious device comes in
to play and the now dead, scaldcd and
scrapped hog hangs from beam upon
which there IS roller, and by this means
he is transported To another room where
the cHjrailS are removed After this has
been accomplished the thoroughly dressed
hog is wheeled out of the way and hung
up to cool of. All this takes place in
less time than it takes TO tell about it.
The capacity Of Mr. Gilmore's house is
Coo hogs per day, but he hardly ever kills
more than $50 to 400 On the first floor
is the boiler room which furnishes the hot
water for scaiding purposes. Of from
the boiler room is the lard rendering de-
partment. Here there are three large
round iron tanks in which the fat is
tried and rendered into lard. This lard
while hot is run off by means of pipes
into couple Of iron coolers, one holding
forty and the other seventeen tcrces.
In these it quickly cools.
There are thirtyfve men employed at
the slaughter house at present, but when
the business is running at full blast twice
that number is required. The whole
slaughter house is admirably arranged foI
the business of butChcring hogs in a sue
cessful manner. Mr. Gilmore has splcn>
did pen IN which to keep hogs on ex-
tremcly cold nights. 1t used to be a rail
way rOundhouse and is very warm. As
is very generally known, hogs are contra.
ry 1t makes no difference which way
you want them to go, they will want TO
60 some other way. 1t takes considerable
tact to drive them up steep chute such
as the one at Mr.. Gilmore's slaughter
house, but the experience that Mr.. Cole
man has gained by years in the business,
makes the job comparatively easy fol-
him, There is a good deal in knowing
how to handle even a hog. Persons who
have never seen wholesale hog butchcrine
can witness an interesting sight by visit
ing GilmOre's slaughter houses.