After the meat is sufficiently smoked the house should be allowed to cool off, and the meat to hang for about twenty-four hours before being handled. It is then ready for packing and shipping. Dried beef thus handled will shrink about 38 to 33 per cent from the cured weight to the smoked weight. The following test will show the shrinkage on 100 pieces of dried beef hams, also the shrinkage each twenty-four hours after: SHRINKAGE ON DRIED BEEF. 100 pieces, cellar weight 1,184 lbs. After smoking 85 hours 812 lbs. 24 hours later 806 lbs. 24 hours later 793 lbs. 24 hours later 781 lbs. 24 hours later 762 lbs. 24 hours later 755 lbs. 24 hours later 750 lbs. =Packages.=--The packing of meats for shipment is best done in open type barrels or crates. Fancy meats should not be packed to exceed one hundred pounds per box so as not to injure the shape. =Skipper Fly.=--The skipper, the larvae in the life cycle of a fly is the one pest needing close watching in a smoke house. This fly does not attack either green or salted meats, but will select a piece of pork ham in preference to a beef ham. The fly lays an egg which hatches to a larvae, and this is the disgusting form in which it is the enemy of sweet-smoked meats. The preventive seems to be such as windows and doors finely screened, regular “gassing” with sulphur fumes and ample light. It is claimed by some that if smoke houses are well lighted, for instance as a show room, the skipper fly will not frequent them since it prefers darkness for the egg laying period. There is no known chemical agent that can be used without conflicting with pure food laws that will destroy the egg once deposited. A fly lays upward of thirty eggs during the life cycle of about two weeks, consequently it multiplies rapidly. CHAPTER XXV. DOMESTIC SAUSAGE MEATS AND HANDLING -- ARRANGEMENT OF DEPARTMENT -- CURING MEATS -- COOLER FOR GROUND MEATS -- GRINDING AND STUFFING ROOM -- SMOKE HOUSE -- COOK ROOM -- DRY HANGING ROOM -- COOLER -- SMOKING TEMPERATURE -- COOKING TIME -- SHRINKAGES -- PICKLE-CURED PRODUCTS -- DRY-CURED MEATS -- PACKING -- CASINGS AND SPICES -- SAUSAGE CEREALS -- SAUSAGE FORMULAS -- BOLOGNA VARNISH -- BOILED HAM. =Introductory.=--There is probably no department where there is more diversity of methods than in the sausage room. The business of sausage making is an old one, and was largely developed in Europe, where on account of the low wages and the high prices for meats it was necessary to make the cheaper meat products into an edible article. The gradually increasing value of meats in the United States makes the same conditions paramount.