Hogs are in the highest perfection, from two and a half to four years old, and make the best bacon, when they do not weigh more than one hundred and fifty or sixty at farthest; they should be fed with corn, six weeks at least, before they are killed, and the shorter distance they are driven to market, the better will their flesh be.  To secure them against the possibility of spoiling, salt them before they get cold; take out the chine or back-bone from the neck to the tail, cut the hams, shoulders and middlings; take the ribs from the shoulders and the leaf fat from the hams:  have such tubs as are directed for beef, rub a large table spoonful of saltpetre on the inside of each ham, for some minutes, then rub both sides well with salt, sprinkle the bottom of the tub with salt, lay the hams with the skin downward, and put a good deal of salt between each layer; salt the shoulders and middlings in the same manner, but less saltpetre is necessary; cut the jowl or chop from the head, and rub it with salt and saltpetre.  You should cut off the feet just above the knee joint; take off the ears and nose, and lay them in a large tub of cold water for souse.  When the jowls have been in salt two weeks, hang them up to smoke—­do so with the shoulders and middlings at the end of three weeks, and the hams at the end of four.  If they remain longer in salt they will be hard.  Remember to hang the hams and shoulders with the hocks down, to preserve the juices.  Make a good smoke every morning, and be careful not to have a blaze; the smoke-house should stand alone, for any additional heat will spoil the meat.  During the hot weather, beginning the first of April, it should be occasionally taken down, examined—­rubbed with hickory ashes, and hung up again.

The generally received opinion that saltpetre hardens meat, is entirely erroneous:—­it tends greatly to prevent putrefaction, but will not make it hard; neither will laying in brine five or six weeks in cold weather, have that effect, but remaining in salt too long, will certainly draw off the juices, and harden it.  Bacon should be boiled in a large quantity of water, and a ham is not done sufficiently, till the bone on the under part comes off with ease.  New bacon requires much longer boiling than that which is old.

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To make souse.

Let all the pieces you intend to souse, remain covered with cold water twelve hours; then wash them out, wipe off the blood, and put them again in fresh water; soak them in this manner, changing the water frequently, and keeping it in a cool place, till the blood is drawn away; scrape and clean each piece perfectly nice, mix some meal with water, add salt to it, and boil your souse gently, until you can run a straw into the skin with ease.  Do not put too much in the pot, for it will boil to pieces and spoil the appearance.  The best way is to boil the feet in one pot, the ears