NORTH CAROLINA 109 



marks ; horses are branded. Each planter's own pecu- 

 liar mark is registered by law, and is thus a legitimate 

 proof of ownership, and extinguishment or falsification 

 of these marks is treated as felony. There is little 

 beef salted for export; what is salted is said not to 

 keep well, and to grow hard and lank. In general, 

 the beef is of no especial goodness in any of the 

 provinces south of Pensylvania and Maryland; the 

 cattle themselves small and thin. But live cattle are 

 exported to the West Indies from the coast country, 

 and large herds are driven up from the farther regions 

 to Pensylvania, and there fed for the Philadelphia 

 market. Out of the woods and thin as they are, one 

 head with another is sold to the cattle-handlers at 3 

 to 6 Spanish dollars ; and to the owner, who has been 

 at so little trouble and expence, this is almost clear 

 gain. Their hogs likewise range throughout the year 

 in the woods. + Towards the coast in the pine forests, 

 the cones of the pitch-pine, larger than those of the 

 other sorts, are their favorite food; also they root up 

 the young sprouts of these pines and eat off the bark, 

 for which reason the pitch-pine does not spring up so 

 readily where it has once been taken off. Farther up 

 the country the hogs find better mast beneath the 

 numerous oaks, chesnuts, beech-trees, and chinqua- 

 pins. In winter the sows make themselves beds of 

 pine-twigs where they litter; the owner seeks them 

 out, brings them in nearer the house, gives them a 

 better bed of straw, and marks the pigs. Later, to 

 accustom them to the plantation, they are called up 

 several times a day and fed on corn-stalks. In the 

 autumn, after the maize-harvest, a number of hogs are 

 brought in from the woods and placed on feed. A 



