The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1910-06-26
Zone Of the Sights Of Boston
A Visit to the Packing House of John P. Squire & Co.,
Interesting and Instructive

Interesting and

There are few people who have any
idea of the enormous amount of bust
ness done by John P. Squire & Co.,
of East Cambridge. To go even hur-
riedly through the great brick build
ing requires an hour, and this does
not give time to inspect one-half the
various stages of preparing the hog
for the consumer. This company ham
die thousands of hogs every day in the
year and when it is considered that all
parts OF the hog are treated and finish
ed in this great establishment it can
be seen what vast amount of care
and labor is involved.
The hogs are the best the buyers
can find in the markets of the west.
When ready for killing they are driven
from the pens to large wheel, to
which are attached short chains, by
which the hogs are elevated to the
overhead track which carries them TO
the sticker, who dispatches them at
the rate of 500 per hour.
The system in all it's details is no
different today than it was in the old
days, except, of course, that it is car
rted on by machinery. After coming
from the scalding tub the carcass is
put on a moving bench, which brings
it along to the scraping machine, and
through that machine. Old timers
may scott at the idea of a scraping
machine doing any kind of a job on a
hog, but this machine does good job.
and does not cut into the flesh at all.
L does not take off all of the hair,
but what little is left on is speedily
taken off by hand scrapers. A moving
: hnncb Carries tho hno
coming out of the machine. and as it
| goes by every hair is taken off.
| From this table, or bench, the hog
: is again strung up by the hind legs,
! and from here he moves along, slowly
passing by men, each of whom knows
his part and does his part.
The moving chain principle is used
in all the operations, and there is alb
solutely no handling of the pork at ALL
Each man must do his part, too, or the
hog will get by him. AS the bulky
shape moves by, the details of the
work proceed until the cold storage
room is reached, which has a floor
space of six acres and a capacity for
storing 10000 dressed hogs. 1t was
always the rule that all of the animal
heat had to be gone out of pork before
it could be hung up, and because of
LnlS all farmers nan2 pig up IN the
woodshed at least As hours before
they cut up and salt The same idea
is followed in the cold storage room
at the Squire plant, and the tempera-
ture is kept somewhere close to the
freezing point, which would be about
that of the farmers woodshed in the
fall of the year.
When the cooled off hog comes from
the cold room it is run on another
moving table, where the cutting up be-
gins. The men here are all ready, and
as it comes along, saws, knives and
cleavers are set to work. Here the
head comes off, the body sawed in
two, and the hams and shoulders
taken off. Some men do nothing but
swing two-foSt cleaver as the parts
go by. Here, too, the general rule OF
the concern to observe the most minute
details of cleanliness is observed. The
cleavers and knives are dipped in very
hot water every few minutes, so that
no fat or particles of meat can attach
to the blades, or stay on for more
than a minute or so. That part that
goes in for roast pork is taken out,
and so are the spare ribs. In fact
every part of the hog is cut up by the
! time the end of the table is reached
where the strips are trimmed, sorted
and graded for bacon.
1 The operations described above are
! only a part of the whole system, as
! there are other departments, and