AARHUS AND A PIG FARM 29 



sale in the shops must by law be stamped as a 

 guarantee of its quality. For this stamping the 

 butchers pay a small fee. The best meat bears a 

 blue stamp, and that which is somewhat inferior 

 a black stamp. In this city also a staff of young 

 women is employed seeking for trichinae in pork, 

 which communicate to man the disease known as 

 trichinosis. If by chance one of them discovers an 

 infected carcase, she is rewarded with a donation 

 of about 1. Therefore, as may be imagined, the 

 search is eager and persistent. 



Some miles from Aarhus is a famous farm of 

 1 100 acres, named Thomasminde, which was kindly 

 shown to me by its owner, -Mr. Pontoppidan. Mr. 

 Pontoppidan's speciality is pigs, of which he stocks 

 no less than 1200. The principle followed on this 

 place is to keep the pigs as near as possible to 

 natural conditions with regard to their food, ten 

 months being allowed to grow them to a weight of 

 about 200 lbs. Danish. The result of this system 

 of slow fatting is that Mr. Pontoppidan's animals are 

 entirely free from swine-fever or tuberculosis. Indeed, 

 out of 3000 pigs sold, only one has been refused by 

 the slaughter-house, and at the time of my visit 

 but ten of the 1200 were unwell from any cause. 

 At any rate he attributes this immunity from all 

 the ills to which pigs are heir, to his method of 

 management. At first he used to insure his stock, 

 but as none died he abandoned the precaution as a 

 useless expense. This to my mind indicates that 

 Mr. Pontoppidan must be peculiarly favoured by 

 fortune, since the general experience of farmers is 

 that if they are tempted by long immunity to cease 



