THE DEVIL IN THE SWINE. 121 



with a full meat diet than upon a mixed diet, the major part of 

 which is composed of vegetables. "We know that the people of 

 the countries of the East are muscular, and perhaps exceed in 

 strength, in agility, and in their powers of endurance, the 

 people of the western countries ; and yet those people live on a 

 spare diet of cereals and vegetables. 



Now, in this country it has always been one of the evils of 

 our farming system, but slightly modified at the present time, 

 that the diet of the farmer and his family has been mainly of 

 meat, instead of being diversified with the fruits and vegetables 

 of the garden. You may go now, even in this nineteenth 

 century, and as late as the year 1871, among the farmers of 

 this country, and you will find that most of them have three 

 meals a day, which, in many places, are composed in great part 

 of pork, in one form or another. Now, my private opinion is, 

 that the devil entered into the swine about two thousand years 

 ago, and has not entirely come out of them yet ; that the effect 

 of his presence is always felt, and once in a while it comes out 

 very strong, in the shape of some mortal disease. There are 

 occasions when men are driven to a diet they do not like. Dr. 

 Kane tells us that when he was in the Arctic regions, with his 

 sailors dying around him with the scurvy, he found nothing 

 more palatable than a frozen rat ; but we should not fancy that 

 as an article of daily diet. I am not prepared to say that we 

 should not eat meat at proper times, but I say that there is no 

 occasion for having it before us habitually, especially pork. I 

 have no doubt that any farmer will say that he can raise a two- 

 year old steer just about as cheaply as he can raise a hog, and 

 if he gets one of those into a barrel, he will have a better 

 quality of meat ; or, at any rate, he will diversify the food of 

 his family ; and if he adds the vegetables which ought to be 

 grown in his garden, his family will improve in health and in 

 morals. 



This matter of vegetables for the garden and farm may be 

 treated in various ways : as the aesthetics of the farm, so to 

 speak, and as a profitable crop for the farmer to raise. We 

 have improved a good deal in this matter of raising vegetables 

 of late years, but too many of those farmers who raise vegetables 

 are in the habit of sending most of them to market, reserving 

 but a very small quantity for their own use. Look at the gar- 



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