The star candles are made of the stearine expressed from the lard in the manufac ture of lard oil. The is si bjected to hydraulic pressure, by which three eighths of it is discharged as an impure oleine. This last is employed in the manufacture of soap. Three million pounds of stearine, at least, ha te been made, in one year, into star candles and soap in these factories, and they are pre pared to manufacture six thousand pounds candles average per da3 through out the whole year. The manyfacture of 150,000 barrels pork 21,000,000 pounds bacon..
13,800,000 No. I lard .
1,000,000 gallons lard oil 420,000 hogs average, including seven pounds gut fat to each, eighty-four mil lion pounds as the carcase weight when dressed. This is distributed as follows : 150,000 barrels pork--l96 pounds net 29.900,000 lbs.
Bacon 21,000,000 Number ons or leaf lard.... 13,800,0W " Lard or grease run into lard oil, stearine, and soap oleine 5,000,000 " prerior grease for soap... 1,000,000 " ilvaporation, shrinkage, waste cracklings, and offal for ma nure 13,800,000 " 84,000,000 lbs.
The value of all this depends of course 11 the foriegn demand. Last year the candles this year will probably approach that amount, as the present supply pro mises the raw material in abundance. From the slaughterers the offal capable of producing grease goes to another de scription of grease extractors, where are also taken hogs dying of disease or by accident, and meat that is spoiling through unfavorable weather or want of care. The grease tried out here goes into the soap manufacture. Lard grease is computed to form eighty per cent. of all the fat used in the making of soap. Of the ordinary soap one hundred thousand pounds are made weekly, equal at four cents per pound to two hundred thousand dollars per annum. This is exclusive of the finer soaps, and of soft soap, which are pro bably worth twenty-five per cent. more.
Glue to an inconsiderable amount is made of the hoofs of the hogs.
At the rear of these operations comes bristle dressing for the Atlantic markets. This business employs one hundred hands, and affords a product of fifty-five thousand dollars.
Last of all is the disposition of what cannot be used for other purposes, the hair, hoofs, and other offal. These are employed in the manufacture of prussiate of potash, to the product of which also contributes the cracklings or residuum left on expressing the lard. The prussiate of potash is used extensively in the print factories of New England, for coloring purposes. The blood of the hogs is manufactured into prussian blue.
A brief recapitulation of the various manufactures out of the hog at this point present : pork, bacon, lard, lard oil, star candles, soap, bristles, &c., exceeded six millions of dollars in value. This year it will pro
bably reach eight millions. But for the reduced prices, which a greatly increased product must create, it would far exceed that value.
The buildings in which the pork is put up, are of great extent and capacity, and in every part thoroughly arranged for the business. They generally extend from street to street, so as to enable one set of operations to be carried on without interfering with another. There are thirty of these establishments, besides a number of minor importance.
The stranger here during the packing, and especially the forwarding season of the article, becomes bewildered in the attempt to keep up with the eye and the memory the various and successive pro-. cesses he has witnessed, in following the several stages of putting the hog into its final marketable shape, and in surveying the apparently interminable rows of drays which at that period occupy the main avenues to the river in continuous lines going and returning, a mile or more in length, excluding every other use of those streets, from daylight to dark. Nor is his wonder lessened when he surveys the immense quantity of hogsheads of bacon, barrels of pork, and kegs of lard, for which room cannot be found on the pork house floors, extensive as they are, and which are therefore spread over the public landing, and block up every vacant space on the side walks, the public streets, and even adjacent lots, otherwise vacant.
It may appear remarkable, in consider ing the facilities for putting up pork, which many other' points in Illinois, In diana, Ohio, and Kentucky possess, in their greater contiguity to the neighbor hoods which produce the hogs, and other advantages which are palpable, that so large an amount of this business is engrossed at Cincinnati. It must be ob served, however, that the raw material in this business (the hog) constitutes sixty per cent. of the value when ready for sale, and being always paid for in cash, such heavy disbursements are required in large sums, and at a day's notice, that the ne cessary capital is not readily obtainable elsewhere in the west. Nor in an article, which in the process of caring runs great risks in sudden changes of weather, can the packer protect himself, except where there are ample means in extensive sup plies of salt, and any necessary force of coopers or laborers, to put on in case of emergency or disappointment in previous arrangements. More than all, the facili ties of turning to account in various manufactures, or as articles of food in a populous community, what cannot be disposed of to profit elsewhere, renders hogs to the Cincinnati packer worth at east five per cent. more than they will command at any other point in the Mis, sissippi valley.