88 KEEPING PIGS. [No. 



great a good as that which they generously aim at 

 can be accomplished. When we are to see such 

 means adopted, God only knows ; but ? if much longer 

 delayed, I am ot opinion, that they will come too late 

 to prevent something very much resembling a disso- 

 lution of society. 



145. The cottager's pig should be bought in the 

 spring, or late in winter ; and being then four months 

 old, he will be a year old before killing time ; for it 

 should always be borne in mind, that this age is 

 required in order to insure the greatest quantity of 

 meat from a given quantity of food. If a hog be more 

 than a year old, he is the better for it. The flesh is 

 more solid and more nutritious than that of a young 

 hog, much in the same degree that the mutton of a 

 full-mouthed wether is better than that of a younger 

 wether. The rjork or bacon of young hogs, even if 

 fatted on corn, is very apt to boil out, as they call it ; 

 that is to say, come out of the pot smaller in bulk 

 than it goes in. When you begin to fat, do it by de- 

 grees, especially in the case of hogs under a year old. 

 If you feed high all at once, the hog is apt to surfeit, 

 and then a great loss of food takes place. Peas, or 

 barley-meal is the food ; the latter rather the best, and 

 does the work quicker. Make him quite fat by all 

 means. The last bushel, even if he sit as he eat, is 

 the most profitable. If he can walk two hundred 

 yards at a time, he is not well fatted. Lean bacon 

 is the most wasteful thing that any family can use. 

 In short, it is uneatable, except by drunkards, who 

 want something to stimulate their sickly appetite. 

 The man who cannot live on solid fat bacon, well- 

 fed and well-cured, wants the sweet sauce of labour, 

 or is fit for the hospital. But, then, it must be bacon, 

 the effect of barley or peas, (not beans,) and not of 

 whey, potatoes, or messes of any kind. It is frequent- 

 ly said, and I know that even farmers say it, that 

 bacon, made from corn, costs more than it is worth! 

 Why do they take care to have it then ? They know 

 better. They know well, that it is the very cheapest 

 they can have ; and they, who look at both ends and 



