346 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



4. SWINE. I have seen no individual hogs, and no breed oi 

 swine, in any respect superior to those which abound with us. 

 They are not kept to a great extent, or in large herds, and most 

 of them are killed very young. There is no pork, excepting that 

 for navy and shipping purposes, salted and packed down, as with 

 us, in tubs ; but with the exception of the lean meat, which is 

 eaten fresh, or made into sausages, the hams are baconed and 

 slightly smoked, and the sides or flitches, which alone are called 

 bacon, are cured very much as the hams are, and then hung about 

 the wall in the farmer s kitchen, very consolatory under the ap 

 prehension of scarcity, but to my taste nowise ornamental.* 



The best hogs which I have seen are the Essex White, raised 

 by a distinguished breeder, Mr. F. W. Hobbes, the Berkshire, 

 and the Neapolitan. These are often crossed, and variously in 

 termixed. The hogs of a most successful farmer in Cornwall, 

 to whom I have before referred, were a mixture of the Essex, 



valued friend of mine, Thomas Spencer, Esq., of Bransby, Lincolnshire, most 

 kindly remembered by many friends in the United States, has applied, with suc 

 cess, a new article to the fattening of his cattle. He obtains from the grease- 

 receivers and soap-boilers, in London, large quantities of their refuse, with us 

 called scraps, here provincially called brassin, which in the process of manufac 

 ture is pressed into cakes, and sent to him in that form. He uses this steamed 

 or heated, and mixed with turnips, chopped hay, and meal, to give to his fatten 

 ing cattle, and finds great advantages from it. It requires some little time to 

 induce them to eat it. Some of the best feeders of swine whom I have known 

 have always deemed it necessary to give them, with their farinaceous, a portion 

 of animal food. The hog, however, is a universal and indiscriminate gourmand. 

 Cattle being wholly graminivorous, might be supposed to be averse to animal 

 food ; but the appetite can be trained ; and we may find a solution of the co.se in 

 the groat doctrine, that &quot; all flesh is grass.&quot; 



* The pork which is principally sold in the London markets is very small. A 

 good deal of it comes from Ireland, from the pigs of the poor cotters, who de 

 pend upon the pet pig to pay the &quot; rint.&quot; A principal dealer informed me, that 

 formerly his customers would be glad of a side of pork which would weigh two 

 hundred weight ; now they are averse to it, if it exceeds fifty pounds. This pork 

 is very slightly salted. The hams and flitches are not always smoked, but sim 

 ply cured and dried, and in that way generally preferred. The American hams 

 are deemed too large for the market, and are objected to as not cut with sufficient 

 neatness. 



The objection to the lard from the United States is, that it is too soft. Whether 

 this be owing to the feed upon which the swine are fatted, or the mode of pre 

 paring the lard, it would be worth while to inquire. The Irish are said to give 

 hardness to their lard, of which great quantities are imported, by the intermixture 

 of a portion of mutton tallow. From Ireland it usually comes in bladders of five 

 to eight pounds weight, a form much preferred to kegs. 



