THE COMMON HOG. 457 



animals. It has been long proved, that, of all 

 flesh-meat, pork is the best adapted to curing 

 and preservation with salt ; and it also appears 

 that the labouring classes of people can subsist 

 longer upon this diet, without desire of change, 

 than upon any other kind of flesh whatever. In 

 various parts of England, even the farmers them- 

 selves very rarely taste, or desire to taste, any 

 other. 



The fat of Swine differs from that of almost 

 every other quadruped, not only in its consistence 

 and quality, but in its situation in the body of the 

 animals. The suet of the Ox, Sheep, Deer, and 

 other ruminating quadrupeds, is found only at the 

 extremities of the flesh. The fat of those animals 

 which have no suet, such as the Dog, Cat, Horse, 

 &c. is pretty equally mixed with the flesh; but 

 the fat of the Hog is neither mixed with the flesh, 

 nor collected at its extremities, but covers the 

 animal all over, and forms a thick, distinct, and 

 continued layer betwixt the flesh and skin, some- 

 what like the blubber in whales. This fat has 

 the name of lard, and, when detached from the 

 flesh, is applied to various domestic uses. 



The great weight to which some of the Berk- 

 shire Hogs have been fed, would seem altogether 

 incredible, had it not been so well attested. Mr. 

 Young, in one of his Tours, mentions one which 

 was fed to upwards of eighty-one stone. A Pig, 

 killed at Congleton, in Cheshire, in the month of 



January, 



