AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL.

Southland Times, Issue 1659, 8 November 1872, Page 1 (Supplement)

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL.

EECIPES FOB CUBING BACON. It appears (says Town and Country) that in certain parts of America, the winners of prizes for prepared articles of produce at agricultural exhibitions are compelled to give the particulars of their preparation. For instance, we have before us four recipes for curing 1,000 pounds of pork, as given by the winners of the first, second, third, and fourth premiums at a recent exhibition held by the Maryland State Agricultural Society. It will be interesting for those of our readers concerned in the matter to compare these methods with those adopted by themselves, and we shall, therefore, give them in cxtenso -,— The first premium was obtained by Mr Thomas Love. He mixed 2-a-lbs. of saltI petre, finely powdered, with half a bushel ' of fine salt, 3 lbs. of brown sugar, and half a gallon of molasses. He rubbed the meat with the mixture, and packed with skin down. He turned the meat over once a week, and added a little salt. After the meat being down for three or four weeks, he took it out, washed it, and hung it up for two or three weeks until it was dry. He then smoked it for three or four weeks, and packed it away in a cool place in chaff or hay. He specially avoided a cellar for the purpose of keeping the meat cool. The second premium was obtained by ' Mr T. M' Henry by the following process : — The meat after being cut out was rubbed piece by piece with finely powdered saltpetre on the flesh side, and where the leg was cut off, a tablespoonful (not heaped) was applied to each ham, and about half that quantity to each middling and jowl, all well rubbed in. It was then salted by packing a thin coating of salt on the flesh side of each piece, about half an inch thick. The pieces were packed on a scaffolding, or on a floor, with strips of planks laid a few inches apart all over it — that is, under the meat. The pieces were placed skin side down, in the following order : — First layer, hams ; second, shoulders ; third, jowls ; fourth, middlings, with the spare., ribs taken out. If the weather was mild, the meat was allowed to lie for six weeks, and if cold, for eight, the brine being allowed to ruh off freely. The third premium was won by Mrs Marriot, who adopted the following recipe : — To half a bushel of fine salt was added 3 l^s brown sugar, 2£ lbs salpetre, half a gallon of best molasses. These ingredients were mixed together, and each piece was rubbed well with the mixture until it was absorbed. The meat was taken out of tbe pickle once a week for six weeks ; the first and second time the meat was taken out a plate of alum salt was added to the pickle. The fourth was won by Mr Charles Jessop, whose recipe ran thus : — To 1\ lbs saltpetre, dried and finely powdered, were added half a bushel of best Liverpool salt, 3rbs of brown sugar, aud half a fgallon of molasses. All the ingredients were mixed in a vessel, the meat well rubbed down, and packed with skiu down. After being in salt for three or four weeks, the pieces were taken out, washed, cleaned, dried, aud hung up for smoking. Three weeks were amply sufficient to smoke them thoroughly. When smoked they were taken down and bagged, or packed away iv dry chaff or cut straw. They were examined occasionally, and if found to be at all dump the packing was renewed with dry material. Thus much for Messrs Love, M'Heury, Jessop, and Mrs Marriot, and no doubt our baeon-curers are indebted to the above-named quartette for the publication of their recipes. Whether these recipes are sufficiently explanatory to answer the beneficial purposes intended by the origin itors of the scheme, we leave the public to decide.

A STTCCESSFtrii POULTRY BREEDER'S A.DVICK Mr Warren .Leland, a most extensive and successful poultry breeder, says : — " I will show you how I manage my poultry-yards. I have found that for every hundred fowls you must have at least an acre. But rough land is as good as any. Hens naturally love the bush, and I lop young trees, but leave a shred by which they live a year or more. In such places they prefer to lay. I have great success, and it depends on three or four rules, by observing which, I believe, a man can make a good living by hens and turkeys. "2. I give my fowls great range. Eighteen acres belong to them exclusively. Then the broods have the range of another big lot, and the turkeys go half a mile or more from the house. The 18 acres of poultry-yard is rough land, of little use for tillage. It has a pond in it, and many rocks, and bushes, and weeds, and sandy places, and ash heaps, and lime, and bones, and grass, and a place which I plough up to give them worms. " 2. When a hen has set I take her box, throw out the straw and earth, let it be OUt in the sua and raia a few days, and give it a good coat of whitewash on both sides. In winter, when it is very cold, I have an old stove in their house, and keep up the warmth. There is also an open fire-place where I build a fire in cool, wet days. They dry themselves, and when the fire goes out there is a bed of ashes for them to wallow in. Summer and winter my hens have all the lime, ashes, and sand they want. " 3. Another reason why I have such luck is because my poultry-yard receives all my scraps from a large hotel. Eggmaking is no easy work, and hens will not do much of it without high feed. They need just what a man who works requires — corn, or bread and meat. Even when corn or bread is dear, I believe in feeding it to hens. As to breed?, I prefer the Brahmas, light and dark. I change roosters every spring, and a man on the farm has no other duty than to take care of my poultry. I often have 3,000 spring chickens."