Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1899-08-17
Preparing Meat at the Large
Packing Houses.

winnie III may De true, as all the par
ties n interest protest, that no com
bnaton of meat packing concerns for
the purpose of doing away with COM
petition is intended, but only that an
agreement that settlements must be
made weekly Cthe sO-called seven-day
rule) has ben entered into, the first
move to the creation of trust is
about to be made The price of meats
of ALL kinds is at once to be advanced
to the consumer, and the reader of this
article will probably Within the com
ing week be called upon to pay at least
two cents pound more for all that he
or she may consume. there is u
scarcity of cattle in the West and at
me same time there is an Increased
demand, it is said
1t may be of interest to take a pass
ing glance at the processes by which
steers, pigs and lambs ARE converted
into fit product for Immediate con-
sumption The principal distributing
center in this country is Chicago,
whore the stockyards occupy over a
square mile of the city's ground.
Through these yards, lthe records show
in calendar year 3,751,796 cattle,
.6O6, ,404 sheep and S,60O,S hogs have
passed. So rigid is the Government
inspection that no animal not sound
in health is received.
The procedure in one great packing
house is the procedure in all, and in
one of the largest The bullocks are
slaughtered at the rate of a hundred
an hour, an interval of only 40 min
utes elaps.ng between ne death blow
and the ranging of the sides in the re-
frigerating rooms. One workman
cleaves Uhe backbone lengthwise; an
other cuts off the TAIL while others
still cleanse The carcass with brushes
and hot water. The bullocks' sides
are then hung on hooks each depend
ing from its own wheel, which slides
easily along the overhead rail. The
sides, so hanging, weigh 81 per cent of
the steer on the hoof. After they
have hung As hours loading time ar
rives, and with it the necessity of
cutting the beef according to- its desti-
nation At the car doors the cutters
with long knives, wait, and with uner-
ring stroke divide the sides into quart
ers as the destination calls for-Bos-
ton, three ribs; New York, one rib,
etc.
The hogs meet their death at the
rate of $50 an hour. Suspended from
sliding chain that holds $50 at a
time the hogs move slowly along,
while at their sides stands a row of
workers, each with a separate tool and
each having a particular duty One
cuts off the haunch bone, another pulls
out the stray punches of hair while
three men, with accurate stroke, cleave
down the backbones. After cooling
two days the work of cutting apart be-
minutes, do this work, and so hard is
the force of the necessary blow that
the knives have to be changed every
twelfth stroke. With the space at hand
it is not possible to describe the var
ious processes whereby his hogship is
transposed to hams, short ribs, sau-
sages, pigs feet, lard butterine, hair
brushes and the thousand and one 9th
er things it is possible to convert him
into. In addition to the foregoing,
great packing house deals in wool,
handles fowls and poultry generally,
runs a glue factory, cures hides and
manufactures fertilizers.-Nsw York
Tribune.