520 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch.XLI. 



10 lbs. per bushel; or, if of the size of 50 stone, and a fair thriver, he may 

 gain at the rate of 2 stone per week ; until at length his consumption of food 

 will fall off, and his increase of weight so much more proportionably dimi- 

 nish, that, as we have already seen, he will not pay for the further feeding. 

 It is supposed that five sacks of barley and one of pease will fatten a hog 

 of 60 or 70 stone ; and that one of a smaller size, in good condition when 

 put up to fatten, and intended to be brought to the weight of 20 score, will 

 only consume about 6 or 7 bushels of pease. This, however, appears a very 

 moderate estimate, as those of a coarser breed, if in poor condition, will 

 take more than five times that quantity to bring them to a complete state 

 of fatness ; and we have the account of one of the Berkshire race put up 

 to fatten on the 28th day of August, and killed on the Sth of March fol- 

 lowing, which consumed 78 bushels of pease, barley, and oats : his dead 

 weight, however, was 82 st. 7 lbs*. 



Writing, as we do, merely for the information of country people, we 

 deem it unnecessary to state the modes of feeding with distillers' wash, or 

 upon butchers'' offal, and chandlers' greaves, — the two latter of which render 

 the meat disgustingly rank — and oil-cake is nearly as objectionable ; but as 

 those who reside near the large seaports can frequently obtain considerable 

 quantities of rice — which, though spoiled for table use, is sound and fit for 

 animal consumption — at a very cheap rate, it may not be uninteresting to 

 them to know that it may in sucb cases be used for the feeding of pigs 

 with great advantage. Thus, Mr. Somers, a butcher in Oxford-street, 

 purchased last year a ton of rice at 7s. per cwt, and used it solely in the 

 feeding of hogs ; one of which he put up, when nine months old, some 

 time in the month of June, and killed it on the 18th of December, 

 1836, at which time the dead weight was 368 lbs., and the meat of a very 

 superior description. Unfortunately, however, he did not keep an account 

 of the live weight ; but the quantity of rice consumed was 250 lbs,, together 

 with a small portion of barley meal, two sacks of bakers' sweepings, and 

 six bushels of pease ; and his opinion was, that not only was the meat far 

 better, but got at a cheaper rate than if it had been produced by barley. 



A comparative experiment is, however, mentioned in the Sussex Report 

 to have been made by Lord Egremont, upon the feeding of eight hogs — 

 four upon rice, and four upon barley, given dry — in which it is slated that 

 barley had the advantage : but there, again, the cost of the grain is only 

 put down in a sum total, without any account of the weight, and the ac- 

 count is so inaccurately given, that we are thus left in the dark respecting the 

 details. It appears, indeed, by another trial, of boiled rice only, that the 

 total weight consumed by ten porkers which were put up on the 3rd of 

 November, and killed on the 30th of December, was 27 cwt. 9 lbs.; or, 

 upon an average, 303 lbs. each — equal to 6 bushels of common barley 

 per head. The total live weight gained was 623 lbs., and the cost of 

 its production being nearly 5 lbs. of rice to 1 lb. of flesh, it follows, that 

 if purchased at Qs, per cwt. — at which price good East India rice can 

 now be obtained in London — it will just pay the feeder when pigs can be 

 bold alive at 5,9. 6d. per stone of 14 lb. ; or, if slaughtered, when pork is 

 worth 3s. 8f/. per stone of 81b. : for the difference between the gross live and 

 dead weight of the pigs was — 



Live weicht ... 16G8 lbs. ) -.■nr ore it, 



r^ , r , ^ ,„„„ V difference 36G lbs. 



Deadweight . . . i6\)l ,, j 



which gives the proportion of dead weight gained by the feeding at 486 lbs. ; 

 * Sussex Report; p. 385. — See also the Complete Grazier, 6th edit., p. 305, 



