PIGS. 51 



and grass, " and best of all dungs for trees." What 

 shall we say amidst so many counsellors ? 



The modes of fattening a pig are infinite, from the 

 nettle-broth and stewed wheat-straw of Drury, to the 

 rosy apples and October ale, the rum and new milk 

 of the Messrs. Outhwaite. Much depends upon cir- 

 cumstances. " In marshy, miry ground, in which 

 situations they delight to wallow, swine devour fern, 

 frogs, sedge, &c. ; but in drier spots they feed on 

 sloes, crabs, hips, haws, chesnuts, acorns, beech-mast, 

 and similar wild fruit " {Complete Grazier) ; and, 

 with opportunity, we must confess it, flesh ; in fact, 

 "to be a pig," is it not to feed on anything raven- 

 ously % But that applies mainly to the old greyhound 

 lot. Modern breeds are better taught, or at least 

 better brought up. There is a controversy, too, 

 about the expediency of giving pigs their food in a 

 cooked or raw state ; cooked bears the palm, so far 

 as I can judge, but you may see much on both sides 

 in numberless works upon the subject. Pliny men- 

 tions as a surpassing food, either boiled or roasted, 

 the root of a kind of water-lily, found plentifully in 

 the Euphrates, a mysterious plant, that at evening 

 dipped down its flower farther than a man's arm could 

 reach below the surface, returning with the dawn to 

 welcome the sun. He had, probably, not heard of 

 the less poetical potato. 



In Sicily and parts of Italy, the large tuberous 

 roots of the cyclamen afford the favourite and main 

 food of the wild boar. In North America it is 

 recorded (Goldsmith) that the family porker has the 

 run of the peach orchards, faring luxuriously upon 



