526 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch.XLI. 



BRAWN 



is made solely from the boar, of all breeds and at any age ; though the 

 larger the size, and the deeper they are in the slioulder, the more they are 

 preferred by the dealers. There are several different places which have 

 acquired a certain degree of reputation for brawn ; among which Oxford 

 bears the highest character ; but perhaps the greatest quantity made, and 

 of as good quality as any other, is manufactured at Canterbury. The 

 droves of boars come to that city about the 15th of October, and are 

 immediately put up to fatten : some singly, others in pens of three or four 

 together, as they are found to feed better in company. They are generally 

 fed upon beans, with sulphur given in their water, and are killed about 

 Christmas. 



The operation of curing consists of boiling, seasoning, taking out the 

 bones, and mixing the flesh so as to form the collar, which is rolled in a 

 cloth and bound up with tape. A good collar is said to weigh about 

 30 lbs ; and the hands, gammons, heads and feet, are either made into 

 sausage-meat or sold to the poor ; but we have little other information 

 on the subject, for the trade make such a secret of their business that when 

 inquiries were made for information by the President of the Board of 

 Agriculture, it was very scantily supplied. 



THE PIGGERY 



is usually raised as a mere shed attached to the wall of some farm building, 

 and as near as possible to the kitchen and dairy — which are too often 

 connected together — the sole reason of which position being the convenience 

 of supplying it readily with wash. A certain degree of nearness is indeed 

 advisable for the saving of trouble, and in some farm-houses there is a door 

 or window in the back kitchen communicating with the hog-sty, through 

 which ihe refuse vegetables and wash can be thrown to the animals without 

 encroaching on the servant's time ; but the air of a dairy should be ever 

 preserved quite uncontaminated from any foulness of scent. Those on a 

 large scale should, therefore, be so constructed as to divide the range of 

 styes from the dairy-yard by a wall sufficiently high to preclude all com- 

 munication of unpleasant odour; yet having a cistern with a trough, or 

 pipes, passed through the wall, so that a servant may only have to cross 

 the court and j)lace the fluid in the reservoir. That erected by the Earl of 

 Egremont is perhaps the most complete building of the kind in the king- 

 dom, and although too large and expensive for common farmers, yet, when 

 farm offices for large holdings are intended by the landlord, something of 

 the same principle might be adopted upon a smaller scale ; we therefore 

 liere insert a ground-plan of the building, — which sufficiently conveys an 

 idea of the structure *. 



A.A. Passage of entrance to the sties. 

 B.B. Open pouiKls with troughs. 

 C.C. Lodging places, with fatting hutches. 



D.]). Internal passage to the whole ; having cisterns at dd for food. 

 K. Inner court. 



F. Boiling-house. 



G. Granary and root-house. 



* See the Sussex Report ; in which there is also a perspective view from ,in elevated 

 situation. 



