58 NOTES ON FIELDS AND CATTLE. 



symptoms — when he is somewhat off his feed or the 

 like ; for you may note it down, and not in sand, 

 that when once a pig is taken really bad, especially 

 if in high condition, you may as well sit down and 

 write his epitaph. Quoth the shrewd old Tusser : 



" Through plenty of acorns the porkling too fat, 

 Not taken in season may perish by that : 

 If rattling or swelling once get to the throat, 

 Thou losest thy porkling, a crown to a groat." 



You bleed a pig easily from a vein running along 

 the inside of the foreleg ; the neck vein, the most 

 serviceable in the case of the horse, cow, and sheep, 

 in the pig lies too deeply buried. 



Discard, by all means, the old clumsy plan of 

 snipping the tail or a portion of the ear off. One of 

 the most marvellous discoveries of modern veterinary 

 science is the law of porcine dentition, whereby the 

 scientific undertake to tell a pig's age to a few weeks, 

 if not days. Almost an accident, or rather the 

 pressure of circumstances, led to the discovery, on 

 the part of Professor Symonds, of a law pervading 

 the phenomena of a pig's teeth as constant as any 

 mathematical formula. All in vain have numberless 

 feints been essayed to dislodge the Professor from his 

 position. There is a good story he can tell, of how 

 he was sent for to inspect several trios of porcine fry, 

 by a well-known breeder, whose lots have been occa- 

 sionally disqualified at Baker Street and Birmingham. 

 There is such strong temptation to exchange a weak- 

 ling, or "to give a crowning rose to the whole 

 wreath," in the shape of a plump cousin from an 



