428 THE PIGS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



China, again, where the temperature is high, pork is largely eaten 

 by the natives, though rarely by the English : hence we can 

 hardly explain the differences we have noticed by the effect alone 

 of climate and temperature. 



We can well understand the great value of swine in this 

 country before the art of feeding animals through the winter 

 was understood ; and even now the acorns are carefully gathered 

 by the children for the cottager's pig. In olden times, when the 

 forests were principally in the hands of the Crown, the copy- 

 holders of surrounding land had the right, under certain restric- 

 tions, of fattening their swine in the woodlands. The usual time 

 for depasturing extended from fifteen days before Michaelmas to 

 forty days afterwards. In our own time, or rather since the 

 development of agricultural practice, and especially since the 

 formation of the Eoyal Agricultural Society, wonderful improve- 

 ments have been made — quite as marked as those in cattle and 

 sheep. The improved pig of to-day is quite a different animal 

 to its half-wild and wholly neglected ancestor, and occupies a 

 most useful position in farm economy. 



The store pig, which includes the brood sow, is a scavenger, 

 ■consuming materials that would otherwise be wasted. Pigs 

 probably convert certain kinds of food into meat as economically 

 as any other animal. They are capable of a good return when 

 properly managed. But, with all these advantages, prices do 

 not rise rapidly in the market. In some exceptional cases par- 

 ticular strains command a high figure, but we have not the 

 competition which prevails, especially for choice cattle or sheep. 

 The reason is not far to seek. The limit to the demand for pork 

 is easily reached, and the fecundity of the pig is so great, that 

 any deficiency is soon made up. Whatever may be the explana- 

 tion, the fact is undoubted that fresh pork is not sufficiently 

 wholesome to be consumed to the same extent as either beef or 

 mutton; it can only be used occasionally, when it makes an 

 agreeable change. By salting and drying, the too rich proper- 

 ties of the flesh are qualified, and we have a valuable article of 

 ■diet. Here it is that the value of the animal is best seen. What 

 would the hard-working cottager, with a large family, do without 

 his pig? Wherewith could he otherwise utilise his waste 

 materials, the bad potatoes from his allotment, the odds and 



