466 FARMING FOR LADIES, [chap, xxiii. 



fording any very superior improvement in 

 either the quality of the meat or the fattening 

 of the pig, it is seldom used ; though, so far 

 as we are acquainted with its effects, we think 

 it well worth a trial when the same weight is 

 to be had for the price of barley- meal. 



The pig will eat, in the second month, half 

 as much again of both milk and meal as in 

 the first ; and in the third, as much again as 

 in the second. At three to four months old 

 he is fit to kill, and will, at the former age, 

 eat as tender as chicken, and may weigh about 

 30 lbs. ; at the latter, he ought to weigh from 

 five to six stone of 8 lbs. each, but the flesh 

 will still be extremely delicate ; and the car- 

 case is generally worth in the market at 

 least 5*. M. per stone. If kept for two or three 

 months longer, although the meat will con- 

 tinue fine, it will yet have acquired so much 

 more strength of fibre as to destroy some 

 portion of its delicacy, and it loses perhaps 

 a penny a pound of its value ; it may, there- 

 fore, be doubtful whether the increase of 

 weight more than repays the additional cost 

 of food. 



On this, however, we shall trespass on our 



