CATTLE. 159 



have seen some very big-framed oxen here/ and I suppose 

 for 10 a head, a cattle-dealer could pick up as many as he 

 pleased. But the beef which is principally used in the coun- 

 try towns is slaughtered by the peasants, brought in, and sold 

 in the open markets. This is really what our sailors would 

 call " old horse," for it is chiefly either from worn-out oxen 

 or cows past milking. Such beef is worth about 2^-d. 

 a Ib. The calves are generally killed a day old, and such 

 veal, which you might almost suck up through a quill, is 

 worth about 2d. a Ib. I wonder what nutriment there 

 can be in such stuff as this. You never, in a town, see a 

 clean butcher's shop ; and any one who has been used to 

 the neat appearance of the butchers' shops in any English 

 town, will indeed be disgusted to see the carcases which 

 are brought into the markets in the peasants' carts. The 

 pork, however, is excellent, although the Swedish peasant's 

 pig, when living, is about as unclean and nasty an animal to 

 look at, as can well be imagined. A fat pig of about 

 twelve months' old should weigh, when slaughtered, above 

 400 Ib., and I have seen the sheep here of English race 

 weigh in the carcase 60 to 70 Ib. Mutton is perhaps worth 

 3d. per Ib. ; and pork, 6s. for the 20 Ib. In the country 

 every family kill their own meat, and October stands in the 

 almanack as ' ' Slagt manad," or slaughtering month. Every 

 part of the animal seems to be used up, and the blood is 

 much relished. These blood puddings are the only things 

 I could never stand. 



It is strange, considering that butter and milk are two 

 of the staple commodities of the country, .and so much of 

 both are used, milk forming one of the principal articles 

 of food, especially among the lower classes, that the cows are 

 not better looked after. The peasant who does not keep 

 a cow is considered poor indeed. On some of the gentle- 

 men's estates, it is true, we now and then see a very well 

 built and clean airy cow-house, but in general the cow- 

 byres are low, dark, and dirty, and the cows shamefully 

 done by ; they have hardly a handful of litter to stand on, 

 and nothing to eat in the winter save straw. In the middle 



