money in their pockets and a job well done; the youngsters, glad to rest their feet and in hope of a little monetary reward as well.

The early boats that docked in Victoria were small and could not accommodate a large number of cattle so cattle drives to Charlottetown had to continue for a time, but the system changed with the arrival of the railroad. Cattle were driven to the railroad siding at Albany where they were loaded onto stock cars for transport to Charlottetown. The railroad was replaced by the stock truck which today visits the farmer’s barnyard to pick up the animals that are ready for market.

Slaughtering the Pig

Every farm kept at least one pig that was fed household slops during the spring and summer, then slaughtered in the fall to provide food for the family during the winter. The slaughtering, dunking, and butcher» ing of the pig was a familiar fall farm scene.

In the farm yard, a very large boiler, rectangular in shape, was placed on top of a brick foundation, similar to a brick bar-be—cue, and a block and tackle hung over this. A fire was lit under the boiler which was filled with water. When the water just about reached the boiling point, the pig, which had just been killed, was lowered by block and tackle into the hot water. This scalding softened the bristles, but was done quickly so the pig would not be cooked. The hide was then scraped, and the long process of preserving the pig for the winter began. The animal was butchered by either the farmer or a local butcher and handed over to the housewife who was adept at curing hams, slicing and salting bacon, making head cheese, extracting lard, curing pork rind, and so on. As one farm wife said: “We made use of everything but the squeal!”8

Billy Callbeck, a hog farmer who lived where Raymond Thomson now lives, slaughtered his animals on the farm in late fall and hauled them to the train station in Albany. Later live hogs were loaded onto what the local people called the Pigs’ Eye Special, a train that went through Albany once a week loaded with pigs going to the slaughter houses in Moncton.]ohn Muttart recalls stamping the shoulder of each hog with the farmers identification mark before the animals were loaded onto the car. This mark was visible on the carcass and was the only way to determine the ownership of the hog.9

Horses

Work horses and light horses were an essential part of every settlers life. Work horses were used by the North Tryon settlers to clear and cultivate the land. They hauled the downed trees from the woods to the sawmill, powered the capstan used to remove tree stumps, pulled the plow, harrows and other farm machinery, walked the treadmill that

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