the rib-pieces fly off at a
blow each, and it has been stated that "two hands, in less than thirteen
hours, cut up eight hundred and fifty hogs, averaging over two hundred
pounds each, two others placing them on the blocks for the purpose. All
these hogs were weighed singly on the scales, in the course of eleven
hours. Another hand trimmed the hams--seventeen hundred pieces--as fast
as they were separated from the carcasses. The hogs were thus cut up and
disposed of at the rate of more than one to the minute." Knifemen then
come into play, cutting out the inner fat, and trimming the hams neatly,
to send across the way for careful curing; the other parts are put in
the pickle-barrels, except the fat, which, after carefully removing all
the small pieces of meat that the first hasty cutting may have left, is
thrown into a boiling caldron to be melted down into lard. Barring the
time taken up in the transit from the slaughter-house to these
cutting-up stores, and the time he hangs to cool, it may be safely
asserted, that from the moment piggy gets his first blow till his
carcass is curing and his fat boiling into lard, not more than five
minutes elapse.

A table of piggy statistics for one year may not be uninteresting to my
reader, or, at all events, to an Irish pig-driver:--

180,000 Barrels of Pork, 196 lbs. each 35,280,000 lbs.
Bacon 25,000,000
No. 1 Lard 16,500,000
Star Candles, made by Hydraulic pressure. 2,500,000
Bar Soap 6,200,000
Fancy Soap, &c. 8,800,000
----------
94,280,000
Besides Lard Oil, 1,200,000 gallons.

Some idea of the activity exhibited may be formed, when I tell you that
the season for these labours averages only ten weeks, beginning with the
second week in November and closing in January; and that the annual
number cured at Cincinnati is about 500,000 head, and the value of these
animals when cured, &c., was estimated in 1851 at about 1,155,000l.
What touching statistics the foregoing would be for a Hebrew or a
Mussulman! The wonder to me is, that the former can locate in such an
unclean atmosphere; at all events, I hold it as a sure sign that there
is money to be made.

They are very proud of their beef here, and it is very good; for they
p