Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 August 1874 — Pork as an Article of Food. [ARTICLE]

Pork as an Article of Food.

If we examine the case from an impartial and unbiased standpoint, and divest all that has been said against pork and porkers from everything that is imaginary or not true, and take the fanaticism,the idiosyncracies.and the ignorance Of those lecturers and writers for simply what they deserve, we shall find, first, that pork is not a contemptible, useless, unwholesome, and unsubstantial food; and a man who has to do a hard day’s work, arid has to eat his bread in the sweat of his face, doe*; by no means despise it, but prefers it very often to the choicost beef or mutton. This is but natural, for pork furnishes more almost than anything else, not only the elements required to support the respiratory process, but also those’ which are principally needed by the organism of a laboring man to repair the continual organic wastes of material, as modified and increased by hard labor. It is true that pork can be too fat, or be Joo badly served or prepared by the cook to be tasty, even to the palate of a laboring man; but so can beef and mutton and everything else, as can be found out very easily in certain boarding-houses. Neither is pork so very unsubstantial an article of food as some of those writers and lecturers are anxious to make us believe. AVhile the body of almost every other domesticated animal, contains between (56 and 75 per cent, of water, the body of a fat pig contained, according to analysis made in the Royal Agricultural College at Eldena, in Prussia, only 45.3 per cent.; and the remainder, the waterfree substance, contained 20. i per cent, of proteine substances, 27.1 per cent, of fat, and 3 per cent, of mineral substances. It is true that pork is not so rich in nitrogen as beef, for instance; but it is not nitrogen alone that is required in the food. Pork of course is not always of the same quality. Its firmness or softness ’and oiliness, respectively, depend, first, upon the breed of the animal, and, second!}’, upon the kind of food with which the .same has been fattened. The socalled improved breeds produce a firm pork, containing a good deal of muscle, if the same have comparatively but little blood of the small breeds of a Southern climate, and produce a soft and oily pork if the same have but little, or scarcely any, blood of the old hog of England or •of Central Europe, The food also causes considerable diff«%rice -In the. quality Of the pork. Barley produces the 'firmest and most solid pork, arid oats produce the softest—even softer and more oily than that produced by feeding corn. The fat of hogs fattened with barley, becomes fluid at 105.8 3 Fahrenheit, and the fat of hogs fattened with oats at 100.4° Fahrenheit. The former, when fluid, Stiffens in one hour at a temperature of 89.6° Fahrenheit, and the latter in six hours at a temperature of 75.2 ° Fahrenheit. Consequently, one who prefers very solid pork must choose a pig qf a large breed, and must fatten it with barley, and one who desires his pork soft may., select a small breed and fatten the same with corn or with oats. It may be well to remark here that the feeding of much salt (chloride of., sodium) is injurious to pigs,, and interferes with their growth and with the process of fattening. Investigating further, we shall, find, secondly, that pigs are mudh better than their reputation, and have done and are doing much more for mankind than mankind has done, and is doing, for them. First, there is no domesticated animal, that is, as a general rule, so much neglected by its owner and left to its own resources before it is fattened for the shambles as a pig; and still there

Ut Do other animal that converts its food 4> soon into food for human beings. Secondly, a pig is an omnivorous animal; that is, it can feed and thrive on both animal and vegetable substances; it is not very particular, and consumes with some relish almost any offal lVom the table, from the dairy, and from the kitchen and garden, which can be scarcely utilized in any other way, with which it«ats the,grain of the field, the grass and clover of the pasture, and the acorns of the forest. Therefore almost any family can raise and fatten one or two pigs with scarcely any expense whatever. Thirdly, pigs are accused of being dirty and filthy and fond of wallowing in the mud. This is a calumny, for scarcely any of our domestic animals keeps its stall and its bedding as clean as a pig, provided the latter is not compelled by the carelessness or by the ignorance of its owner to sleep and to deposit its excrements at the same place, but is provided with a good, dry, warm, well-lit-tered and well-ventilated pen to sleep in, and with a yard which it can walk into at its own pleasure. Further, there is no animal that is more fond of being brushed, rubbed, washed and petted, or that enjoys a good bath in clean, fresh and cool water as much as does a pig, especially in the summer, when a daily bath is so essential to the health of the animal. A pig takes a bath in a mud-pool only when no other opportunity is left.—Cor. Chicago Tribune. '•==