1. The killing is done in a crowded pen on the second floor, to which about twenty hogs at a time ascend by
means of an
inclined bridge.
2. They are unceremoniously knocked in the head with a two-pound hammer, by a person who never fails to
bring them down
“the first clip.”
3. Dragged from the pen, they are removed to the “bleeding platform,” where a knife is “intruded down the
wind pipe into
the heart” (a melodramatic rendition of severing the jugular vein).
4. Thrown into a vat of scalding water, about twenty feet long, six feet wide, and three feet deep,
temperature being
controlled by the admission of steam, the carcass remains only a sufficient length of time to permit the
bristles to be
removed easily.
5. A gambrel is inserted in the hocks; and the gambrel is lifted, by a revolving ten-foot wheel, to a socket
suspended
from a rolling pulley on a track above.
6. The carcass weight bears it to the presence of a stalwart, who lays the hog open with three or four
strokes of the
knife, and removes the entrails.
7. Another man drenches the carcass with a flood of water from a hosepipe.
8. The carcass moves down the track, where it is left for cooling twenty-four hours or longer.
9. The cutting-room is furnished with huge blocks of wood, on which the carcass is placed when cool.
10. A single blow severs the head, another the hams.
11. The hams pass to a person who trims them with a dexterous certainty and skill that seem truly
astonishing.
12. The backbone is cut out, and the sides separated into chunks for the barrel….
— Albert S. Bolles, Industrial History of the United States
(Henry Bill Publishing Company, 1926); quotes are from Charles Cist, Harper's
Weekly (January 11, 1868)
