VEGETABLE AND FRUIT MARKETS. 355 



might be avoided. The English method might be tried ; and if 

 it has any advantages to the sufferer or the executioner, I cannot 

 doubt it would be adopted. 



Calves, as I have observed, are not killed under six or eight 

 weeks old, and they are bled daily for a week before they are 

 slaughtered. I do not know that this is a very painful operation, 

 but very little seems to be gained by it. They are killed, as with 

 us, by cutting the throats across. The manner, however, in 

 which they are often conveyed through the streets, piled into a 

 cart, lengthwise, by dozens, with their heads hanging down as 

 they are jolted over the pavements, is perfectly shocking to 

 humanity, and deserves the interference of the benevolent 

 society for the prevention of cruelty to animals. It is sufficiently 

 humiliating to feel, that in nothing does man more need watch 

 ing and restraint, than in his treatment of the helpless and 

 defenceless. 



It is a subject certainly worthy of concern. It is no affecta 

 tion of sensibility, though by some it may be deemed a morbid 

 sensibility, to say, that the subject is a painful one. The pas 

 sion which one sometimes sees excited in the killing of animals, 

 and the utter callousness and indifference with which some 

 persons go about it, to whom the work is familiar, are very far 

 from being agreeable features, either in temper or conduct. The 

 sight and smell of blood excite an instinctive horror even among 

 the inferior animals ; and any man, who contributes, in anyway, 

 to alleviate pain and suffering, even among the lowest of sensi 

 tive existences, and to prevent cruelty, more especially to the 

 dumb and defenceless, need not feel that he has lived wholly in 

 vain. 



LIX. VEGETABLE AND FRUIT MARKETS. 



England may with reason boast of the fineness of her fruits, 

 especially as, in this matter, she has to contend with the adverse 

 influences of temperature and climate. The country abounds in 

 greenhouses, hothouses, conservatories, and forcing-beds. All 

 the appliances of art, and the highest measure of horticultural 

 skill, are exerted to counteract the unfavorable circumstances 



