THE HOG. 217 



fourteen pounds for seventeen or eighteen pounds of ground seed. 

 Neither sliouM be given, except in combination with a large proportion 

 of other substances, as they are of a very greasy nature, and are apt to 

 impart a rank flavor to flesh, if given in an unmixed state, and are 

 actually more efticacious in combination. If you have plenty of meal, 

 the addition of a little to the daily feeds will be found to tell well, espe- 

 cially toward the close of fattening, a few weeks previous to transferring 

 your stock to the butcher. 



The refuse of mills forms a very valuable item in swine food, when 

 mixed with such boiled roots as I have enumerated — as starch sounds, 

 the refuse from the manufacture of that article; also the fibrous refuse 

 remaining from the manufacture of potato-starch. 



Swine are frequently kept by butchers, and are fed principally upon 

 the garbage of the shambles — as entrails, the paunches, lights, and the 

 viscera of sheep and cattle, as well as the blood. Swine are, like their 

 human owners, omnivorous, and few articles come amiss to them. It 

 must, neverth.ek'ss, be confessed, that the flesh of hogs fed on animal 

 food is rank both in smell and taste, and readily distinguishable from 

 that produced from a vegetable diet. I am not unnecessarily prejudiced, 

 and it is on the merits of the case alone that I condemn butcher-fed 

 pork. Pork butchers, resident in large towns, are very apt to feed 

 chiefly on off'al of all sorts, including that arising from the hogs daily 

 slain and dressed for the market. 



There is yet another description of feeding — I allude to the feeding 

 of swine in knackers' yards. The animals are kept in considerable num- 

 bers, and are fed wholly upon the refuse of dead horses — chiefly the 

 entrails, the carcass being in too great demand among those who keep 

 dogs to permit of it being unnecessarily wasted. Nor are these horses 

 always fresh, the swine reveling in corruption, and disputing with the 

 maggot the possession of a mass of liquid putrefaction. And are we to 

 say nothing of the number of horses who die of glanders, farcy, or some 

 similarly frightful contagious and incurable disorder? How can we be 

 certain that this is not one of the many sources whence occasionally 

 spring apparently causeless pestilences or malignant epidemics? While 

 such a practice is tolerated, with what caution should we not purchase 

 bacon or pork, lest we should thus eat at second-hand of substances so 

 revolting to the feelings, so dangerous to individual and public health ! 



Chandlers' Greaves are likewise objectionable as food for swine, unless 

 given in comparatively small quantities, and mixed with bran, meal, and 

 boiled roots. If fed wholly on either greaves, or oil-cake, or flax-seed, 

 the flesh becomes loose, unsubstantial, and carriony ; and gives out a 

 flavor resenibling that of rancid oil. 



Hogs that have been fed chiefly on corn, alternated with the vegetable 

 diet already described, produce pork nearly equal in delicacy of flavor, 

 whiteness of color, and consequent value, to that well-known, delicious 

 article, dairy pork. Indian corn is most useful in feeding and in fatten- 

 ing pigs; it should be employed in conjunction with oat or barley meal, 

 or some other equally nutritious matter. 



Respecting the quality of food, vast numbers of bacon hogs are almost 

 invariably fed upon potatoes; but however apparently satisfactory may 

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