Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1919-02-10
GRANDFATHER AND HIS HOGS.


The United States department Of
agriculture has issued a bulletin of in
structions on Killing Hogs and Cur
ing Pork" This instruction book is
Intended to popularize farm butcher
ing"
The farmer is told that he needs an
eight inch sticking knife, cutting
knife, a fourteen inch steel, a hog
hook. a scraper, gambrel and meat
saw. 1t is suggested that a barrel is
a convenient receptacle in which to
scald the animal and remarks that
small block and tackle will come in
handy.
If such information is needed in
hog raising country then indeed We
have fallen far from the ordinary hard
sense and capabilities of our fathers
and grandfathSs. Come to think of it
those who drive across country do
nowadays miss a sight familiar years
ago-that of half dozen clean, white
porkers hanging from the gambrel
sticks of chill Nov. day Just inside
the fence between the barnyard and
the houseyard. Stop and think; when
did you see from two to half dozen
dressed hogs hanging from pole be-
animal heat TO go out Of 'em" Long
time ago?
But it can't have come to the pass
that the Iowa farmer in general needs
TO be told that he needs two butcher
knives and a scalding barrel to butcher
in convenience of scalding. Surely
somebody in the neighborhood knows
how to rig platform from few
planks or an old barndoor with bar
rel settled at one end, how to stick a
hog, temper the water to proper scald-
ing heat and throw in few wood
ashes to make the scurf slip. Why
any old time farmer could take a
butcher knife and barrel and per-
haps an old fashioned iron candlestick
and halter rope and butcher, a hog.
In default Of the hog hook he put a
half hitch round the deceased pork
ers under jaw and swashed that un-
lucky cadaver up and down in the
barrel until the scald was good and
the hair beneath the fore legs loosened
readily. Lacking the rope and tackle
Ckindly sound the A as in ache) two
husky boys lifted the hog until another
could slip the gambrel stick thru I'M
der the tendons of one heel. across the
six by six and make another connec-
ton with the other heel and its ten
dons. And there Mr.. Hog hung ready
to be disembowled and his liver hung
on a post convenient for the wimen'
to take off slices for the next meal.
Butcher? Well the farmer Of the
eighteen hundreds did butcher. He
butchered hogs galore, hung the hams
and shoulders in the smoke house,
picked the side meat, made sausage
and stuffed it too, ate the Chimes and
tenderloin for fresh sent a fine
hunk over to the neighbor, tried OUT
the lard, mighty crooks Of it. and made
head cheese and souse. More he butch
cred a two year-old and corned half
Of the beef. He hung one hind quarter
in the woodhouse from which he sawed
the winter weeks. A neighbor got the
other hind quarter to be paid in kind
when he butchered sometime in jan
| uary. Butcher? You bet he butchered.
One Of those old time cellars would
set modern housewife wild with it's
barrels Of meats and it's crooks Of lard
and it's fresh hams fried down and
covered with lard, with it's bins Of
| apples from sheepnoses to romantics,
its kegs of apple butter and cider APP
pie sauce; and there are those who
in these days Of drouth would cast
loving glances upon the barrels OF
cider. perhaps with a few pounds Of
raisins added and permitted to work
clear then bunged tight to arrest any
further progress toward the vinegar
stage.
In those days farm was princi-