of a swivel lever mounted on a post and
swung around to a hanging bar, placed conveniently. This bar has sliding
hooks made to receive the gambrel sticks, which have a hook permanently
attached to each so that the carcass is quickly removed from the swivel
lever to the slide hook on the bar. The upper edge of the bar is rounded
and smoothed and greased to help the hooks to slide on it. This serves to
hang all the hogs on the bar until they are cooled. If four persons are
employed this work may be done very quickly, as they may divide the work
between them; one hog is being scalded and cleaned while another is being
dressed.

[Illustration: FIG. 11. EASY METHOD OF HANGING A CARCASS.]

Divested of its coat, the carcass is washed off nicely with clean water
before being disemboweled. For opening the hog, the operator needs a sharp
butcher's knife, and should know how to use it with dexterity, so as not
to cut the entrails. The entrails and paunch, or stomach, are first
removed, care being taken not to cut any; then the liver, the "dead ears"
removed from the heart, and the heart cut open to remove any clots of
blood that it may contain. The windpipe is then slit open, and the whole
together is hung upon the gambrel beside the hog or placed temporarily
into a tub of water. The "stretcher," a small stick some sixteen inches
long, is then placed across the bowels to hold the sides well open and
admit the air to cool the carcass, and a chip or other small object is
placed in the mouth to hold it open, and the interior parts of the hog
about the shoulders and gullet are nicely washed to free them from stains
of blood. The carcass is then left to hang upon the gallows in order to
cool thoroughly before it is cut into pieces or put away for the night.

Where ten or twelve hogs are dressed every year, it will pay to have a
suitable building arranged for the work. An excellent place may be made in
the driveway between a double corncrib, or in a wagon shed or an annex to
the barn where the feeding pen is placed. The building should have a
stationary boiler in it, and such apparatus as has been suggested, and a
windlass used to do the lifting.

HOG KILLING MADE EASY.

In the accompanying cut, Fig. 11, the hoister represents a homemade
apparatus that has been in use many years and it has been a grand success.
The frames, _a_, _a_, _a_, _a_, are of 2x4 inch scantling, 8 ft. in
length; _b_, _b_, are 2x6 inch and 2 ft. long with a