CHAP. VIII.] COWS, SHEEP, HOGS, &C. 315 



ingly good. Hence it is, that they are induced 

 to keep their hogs till they have quite done 

 growing; and, though their sort of hogs is the 

 very worst I ever saw, their hog meat was the 

 very fattest. The common weight in Normandy 

 and Brittany is from six to eight hundred 

 pounds. But, the poor fellows there do not 

 slaughter away as the farmers do here, ten or a 

 dozen hogs at a time, so that the sight makes 

 one wonder whence are to come the mouths to 

 eat the meat. In France du lard is a thing to 

 smell to, not to eat. 1 like the eating far better 

 than the smelling system ; but when we are 

 talking about farming for gain, we ought to in 

 quire how any given weight of meat can be ob 

 tained at the cheapest rate. A hog in his third 

 year, would, on the American plan, suck half a 

 dairy of cows perhaps; but, then, mind, he 

 would, upon a third part of the fatting food, 

 weigh down four Long Island " shuts" the 

 average weight of which is about one hundred 

 and fifty pounds. 



306. A hog, upon rich food, will be much 

 bigger at the end of a year, than a hog upoa 

 good growing diet; but, he will not be bigger at 

 the end of two years, and especially at the end 

 of three years. His size is not to be forced on, 

 any more than that of a child, beyond a certain 

 point. 



