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Show 'JESTS MEAT FOR SWEETNESS Olfactory Nerves of the "Ham Smell- er" Must B Always t Their I Keenest. To the long list of unusual occupations occupa-tions by which men live, there musi lie added thnt of tlie "hum smeller" in a packing house. His duty Is to Inspect meat products and Judge of their ' soundness. The ham smeller's only tools are a long sleel trier and his Dose. He , elands In a barrel to keep his clothes from being soiled by the dripping brine, and the hams are brought to him by workmen. A ham Is laid he-fore he-fore him, and he plunges his sharp-pointed sharp-pointed trier Into It, withdraws It and passes It swiftly beneath his nose. The trier always goes down to the knuckle Joint. In testing meat In that manner the man with the trier judges by the slightest shade of difference between the smell of one piece of meat and another. The smell of the meat Is almost al-most universally sweet, and that Is what he smells; the slightest taint or deviation from the sweet smell is therefore appreciable. It is not the degree of taint that he expects to find, but the slightest odor that is not weet. When ho detects an odor he throws the meat aside, and if it is not unwholesome, un-wholesome, it is sold as "rejected" meat, but If It Is tainted It goes to the rendering tank. The ham tester smells meat from 7 o'clock in the morning until 5 at night, and his sense must never become jaded or Inexact, or his usefulness would he at an end. Ham testing is not a pursuit dangerous dan-gerous to the health, as tea testing is supposed to be, but the ham smeller with a cold In his head Is for the time being like a piano player who has lost bis arms In a railwuy wreck. |