- Great care must be taken in selecting pork. If ill-fed or diseased, no meat is more injurious to the health. The lean must be fine-grained, and both fat and lean very white. The rind should be smooth and cool to the touch. If clammy, be sure the pork is stale, and reject it. If the fat is full of small kernels, it is an indication of disease. In good bacon the rind is thin, the fat firm, and the lean tender. Rusty bacon has yellow streaks in it. Fresh pork should seldom be eaten, and never except in the fall and winter.

Lamb is good at a year old, and more digestible than most immature meats. "Spring Lamb" is prized because unseasonable. It is much inferior to the best mutton. The meat should be light red and fat. If not too warm weather, it ought to be kept a day or two before cooking, but it does not keep well. It is stringy and indigestible if cooked too soon after killing. The fore-quarter of lamb, if not fresh, the large vein in the neck, which should be blue, will be greenish in color. If the hind-quarter is stale, the kidney-fat will have a slight smell.