84 KEEPING PIGS. [NO. 



day, between daylight and dark. So that it is no 

 slavish toil that I am here recommending. 



KEEPING PIGS. 



139. NEXT after the Cow comes the Pig; and, in. 

 many cases, where a cow cannot be kept, a pig or 

 pigs may be kept. But these are animals not to be 

 ventured on without due consideration as to the 

 means of feeding them ; for a starved pig is a great 

 deal worse than none at all. You cannot make ba- 

 con as you can milk, merely out of the garden. There 

 must be something more. A couple of flitches of ba- 

 con are worth fifty thousand Methodist sermons and 

 religious tracts. The sight of them upon the rack 

 tends more to keep a man from poaching and stealing 

 than whole volumes of penal statutes, though assisted 

 by the terrors of the hulks and the gibbet. They are 

 great softeners of the temper, and promoters of do- 

 mestic harmony. They are a great blessing; but 

 they are not to be had from herbage or roots of any 

 kind ; and, therefore, before a pig be attempted, the 

 means ought to be considered. 



140. Breeding sows are great favourites with Cot- 

 tagers in general ; but I have seldom known them to 

 answer their purpose. Where there is an outlet, the 

 sow will, indeed, keep herself by grazing in summer, 

 with a little wash to help her out : and when her pigs 

 come, they are many in number ; but they are a heavy 

 expense. The sow must live as well as a fatting' 

 hog) or the pigs will be good for little. It is a great 

 mistake, too, to suppose that the condition of the sow 

 previous to pigging is of no consequence ; and, in- 

 deed, some suppose, that she ought to be rather bare 

 offiesh at the pigging time. Never was a greater 

 mistake; for if she be in this state, she presently be- 

 comes a mere rack of bones ; and then, do what you 

 will, the pigs will be poor things. However fat she 

 may be before she farrow, the pigs will make her lean 

 in a week. All her fat goes away in her milk, and 

 unless the pigs have a store to draw upon, they pull 



