TALLOW (French, suif ; German, talg ; Italian, zero, sego; Russian, sale, toplense ; Spanish, who) is animal fat melted and separated from the membranous matter which is naturally mixed with it. When pure, tallow is white, and nearly tasteless ; but the tallow of commerce usually has a yellow tinge. It is divided, according to its qualities, into various kinds, of which the best are used for the manufacture of candles, and the inferior for making soap, dressing leather, greasing machinery, and some other purposes.
A large proportion of the tallow used for making candles in this country is of home production. It is fitted for use by the renderer, who chops into pieces the fat and suet received from the butchers, and boil", it in water, by which operation the greater part of the fat is melted out from the membranes, and floats to the top, whence it is removed by skimming. The remaining fat is subsequently squeezed from the membranes by a powerful press, leaving the membranous matter in the form of a cake or block, of a dark colour, which is called graves, or cracklings, and which, when macerated in warm water, softens and swells, and is used as food for poultry, dogs, and other domestic animals. The operation of rendering should be performed as speedily as possible after the removal of the fat from the carcass, because the fibrous and fleshy matter mixed with it tend to promote putrefaction.
Almost all our imported tallow is brought from Russia, where this article is produced in enormous quantities. About 250,000,000 lbs. of tallow are furnished annually to the rest of the worldjproviding the chief supply of soap and candles to England, Franco, Germany, Scandinavia, Italy, and the other countries of Europe ; and this la all in addition to the large quantity consumed by the Russians themselves. Nearly the whole of this quantity is furnished by the Pontine steppes, in the southern part of European Russia. The large tallow-nianufactories, or salgans, as they are called, are exclusively in the hands of the natives of Great Itumia, who buy the cattle by thousands, and, after fattening them for a season, drive them to the ealgaria to bo slaughtered. The salgans, to which the tallow-boilera usually begin to drive their oxen in small number", towards the close of summer, generally consist of a spacious court-yard surrounded by the building", necessary for the manufacture: embracing shambles for slaughtering the oxen, houses containing enormous boilers to boll down the flesh, places for salting the hides:, and countiug-houses and dwelling", for the workmen. In the
summer these establishments are untenanted, except by dogs and birds of prey, which hover about all tho year round, attracted by the nau mous smell, which, however alluring to them, is disgusting to a visitor and distressing to the oxen. The business is generally carried on during the rainy season. The actual slaughtering is performed in so rude and unartificial a manner as to occasion much needless suffering to the beasts. After the carcasses are skimmed, three or four poods of flesh are cut off from the loins and back for sale in the bazaar as meat, there being little fat in those parts of the body; but owing to the barbarous method of slaughtering, this meat is 60 much injured that none but the poor will buy it. The remainder of the carcass is cut up, and everything, excepting the intestines, which are given to the pigs (of which a considerable number are always kept at the edger' to fatten during the season), is thrown into the boilers, of which there are from four to six in every salgan, each large enough to contain the flesh of ten or fifteen oxen. A little water is put into the boiler, to prevent the " soup," as its contents are termed, from burning. The fat, as it collects at the top, is skimmed off with largo ladles ; and before it is quite cold it is poured into the casks in which it is after wards shipped. The at which comes off is the best, and is quite white ; while that which follows has a yellowish tinge. When there are not sufficient casks at baud, the hides of the slaughtered oxen are sewn up, and the tallow is poured into them. A further supply of fat, but of very inferior quality, is subsequently obtained by subjecting the mash of bones and flesh to huge presses. This tallow, which is rarely exported, is of 'a dark brown colour, and is used for greasing wheels and for other coarse purposes. An ox in good condition will yield from seven to eight poods (250 to 290 lbs.) of tallow, which is generally worth from cloven to fifteen rubles a pood. The article is always so greatly in demand, that the merchants often pay part of the price for it while the oxen are yet grazing on the steppes.