The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-11-05
Bill ArIp'S Letter,
He Gives Advice About Bacon and Saved
His Meat.

I That night about midnight the judge
called mp old Jack and Virgil, whom he
knew he could trust, and had the joints
of the meat and a part of the sides
carried quietly down to the old black
smith shop on the bank of the river.
| With pick and shovel the clnderS and
earth in the old hearth were soon eXca-
waited and Il chamber fashioned that
would hold and hide Il thousand pounds.
| 1t was buried there and the hearth was
| covered lust like it had been. Some
scattering charcoal filled in the spaces
and some was left on top and the black
old basket placed where it long had
| been. With shovel and wheelbarrOw the
surplus earth was taken down the river
bank and tumbled in and then all was
quiet on the Chattahoochee. The burial
of Sir John Moore was not more silent.
In January, 1865, / joined my family at
| the plantation and not long after the
iudge furnished us a good mule team
and wagon and we returned to our home
| in Rome. The day before we left his
| hospitable mansion he opened the cache
and found the meat all sweet and sound
and we brought a good portion of II
with us and it was as precious as gold.
| My wife says the charcoal purified it and
| kept it from tasting old or rancid.
Now then | have answered my friends
question. He must get up another civil
| war and hide his meat in the hearth
of an old blacksmith shop. Earth and
charcoal are both good disinfectanfs and
preservative of flesh, and il | was in Flor
ida ! would pack my meat in charcoal.
not dust. but small crushed coal. Be
fore putting the meat down | would
powder it from pepper box with borax.
Borax is almost universally used now.
1t is sure death to shippers and other
verinin and druggist told me thar the
sale of it had increased thousand per
cent. within the last five years.
When my family got home we found
that it was not good to live by meat
alone and we had to send down the river
hundred miles for few bushels of
corn and hid Il near a mill in the cOun-
try. because the outlaws and deserters
were patrolling the land and taking
everything they could find. A good friend
brought us half a buShel of meal at Il
time on the sly, and so We got along.
| The memory of old Rowland Bryant IS
| still precious to us for his kindness in
those tbslAS OF ifIDulbtlOil. II IL tHtOu4
aging to know that Armour N Co. have
not abolished all the smokehouses in
| the land, nor drawn our home made
meat into their mighty trust. Our farm
ers are generally raising their own meat
| and bring a good deal to town to sell,
and my wife says that country lard Is
| purer and better than any that comes
from the packing houses of the west.
| Our home market is well supplied by
our farmers with almost everything that
is good to eat. Beef, pork, butter chick
ems. eggs. potatoes, turnips, cabbages,
beans and apples are in great abundance.
or course we can't have mutton, for the
negroes must have dogs and the candl-
! dates must have negro votes. icsi
eight fine Merinos in one night and my
neighhor Mr. Dobbins, lost three hun
bred in five years, and quit the business.
But with all our drawbacks, our people
are on the upgrade. Seven cents cot
ton has helped greatly. and il our farm
ers will cut down the acreage still more
it win bring s cents next year and leave
more land for wheat and corn. The
Southern farmers ought to form a mighty
trust and regulate acreage and price.
Our own county could regulate itself