516 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch.XLI. 



might pick up about the homestead, about an acre and a half of the grasses, 

 and tlie same quantity'of potatoes, are also computed to be sufficient. This, 

 however, must be coupled with so many circumstances respecting the 

 nature of the ground, the growth of green crops, and their consumption, 

 together witli the number of cattle, and, in short, the peculiar management 

 of the farm, that no estimate of the kind can be made with such accuracy 

 as to be relied on. 



In dairy-farms, one good store-pig is generally allotted by writers 

 on the subject to each cow ; but here, again, the average quantity of milk 

 produced by each, and whether manufactured into butter or cheese — as the 

 whey and butter-miik are widely different in quality — together with the 

 breed of pigs to be supported, must also be taken into consideration. 

 Thus, for instance, in the Vale of Aylesbury — which is a great dairy district 

 in Buckinghamshire, for the production of butter — one farmer says — 



" That the average of pigs, fed solely upon skim-milk, is about six 

 or seven bacon-hogs and ten porkers to a score of cows." 



Another, " that with the same number of cows he can fatten 14 

 bacon-hogs of 15 score each in a year, giving them some corn with 

 the milk." 



While a third states, " that 30 cows will, in the course of the year, 



fatten? or 8 hogs from 16 to 18 score each, sold at one year old, and 



40 porkers of 5 or 6 stone each. The most usual mode, however, is 



to keep a dozen pigs to a score of cows, and to sell them as porkers 



at about 16 weeks old: by which means each cow may be supposed 



to rear a pig and a half of 8 to 9 stone each, or about 12 to 13 stone 



annually*." 



Whey is much less nutritive than either skim-milk or butter-milk, and is 



never used alone, in the feeding of swine ; for in most cheese dairies they 



make butter of the whey after the cheese has been extracted ; and in like 



manner skim-milk cheese is often made after the cream is taken ofT for 



butter, by which means its nutriment is entirely exhausted : though it has 



been asserted in the Mid-Lothian Survey that " hogs thrive as well upon 



the whey after the butter is taken from it as before." 



There are two objects for ivhich pigs are usually reared : the one, to 

 produce pork which may be used in families either fresh or pickled ; and the 

 other, to be salted and dried for bacon and hams, or pickled for the navy. 

 In this country, the only fresh pork generally consumed is obtained from 

 porkers, the flesh of which is either roasted or pickled"; as full-grown hogs 

 are almost invariably made into bacon. In the southern parts of Europe, 

 however, young pigs are very rarely killed, except as sucklers ; and the 

 only other pork which is roasted is that of the bacon-hog. The store-pigs 

 are sent into the woods, where they find plenty of chesnuts, and when these 

 are consumed, they are fattened upon Indian corn, given whole. The fat of 

 the flesh is then usually pared olT, and salted, to within about an inch of the 

 lean ; which is white, firm, and, when roasted, though divested of its cracklin, 

 is, in our opinion, far superior to any meat of the kind which we have ever 

 eaten in England. Some English breeders, however, assert that Indian 

 corn is not equal in pig-feeding to barley-meal ; but this, we conceive, must 

 apply rather to the quantity than the quality of the meat. 



When the produce of a sow is intended for the use of the family, instead 

 of being sent to market, the smaller breeds of the Berkshire, Essex, or 

 Suff"olk species should be chosen : the Neapolitan is also a pig of conve- 



* See the Buckiugliamshire Rep.; p, 325, 



