Chap. VIII.] Cows, Sheep, Hogs, &c. 173 



cow seems as necessary to the pig as the pig's mouth is 

 necessary to his carcass. There are, for instance, six 

 cows; therefore, when they begin to give milk in the 

 spring, six pigs are set on upon the milk, which is given 

 them with a suitable proportion of pot liquor (a jneat pot) 

 and of rve, or Indian, meal, making a diet far superior 

 to that of the famihes of labouring men in England, 

 Thus the pigs go on 'till the time when the cows (for 

 •want of moi^t food) become dry. Then the pigs are 

 shut up, and have the new sweet Indian corn heaped 

 into their stye 'till they are quite fot, being half fat, 

 mind, all the summer long, as they run barking and 

 capering about. Sometimes they turn sulky, however, 

 and will not eat enough of the corn ; and well they may, 

 seeing that they are deprived of their milk. Take a 

 child from its pap all at once, and you will find, that it 

 will not, for a long while, relish its new diet. What a 

 system ! but if it must be persevered in, there might, it 

 appears to me, be a great improvement made even in it ; 

 for, the labour of milking and of the subsequent opera- 

 tions, all bein.5 performed by icomen, is of great incon- 

 ▼enience. Better let each pig suck its adopted mother 

 at once, which would save a monstrous deal of labour, 

 and prevent all possibility of waste. There would be no 

 slopping about; and, which is a prime consideration in 

 a dairy system, there would be clean milking ; for, it 

 has been proved by Doctor Anderson, that the last 

 drop is fourteen times as good as the first drop ; and, I 

 ■will engage, that the grunting child of the loAving mother 

 would have that last drop twenty times a day, or would 

 pull the udder from her body. I can imagine but one 

 difficulty that can present itself to the mind of any one 

 disposed to adopt this improvement ; and that is, the 

 teaching of the pig to suck the cow. This will appear 

 a difficulty to those only who think unjustly of the un- 

 derstandings of pigs : and, for their encouragement, 1 

 beg leave to refer them to Daniel's Rural Sports, 

 •where they will find, that, in Hampshire, Sir John 

 Mildmay s gamekeeper, Toomer, taught a sow to point 

 at partridges and other game; to quarter her ground 

 like a pointer, to back the pointers, when she hunted 

 with them, and to be, in all_ respects, the most docile 



